Reliance Jio’s 4G speeds skyrocketed during May-July period: OpenSignal

4G LTE speeds on Reliance Jio’s networks have “skyrocketed” in May-July period in India, while the overall experience on its network has improved dramatically, according to a study by OpenSignal.

After an uptick in February, Jio’s speeds leveled out at around 4.2 Mbps between the test periods ending in March and April. But as soon as Jio’s free data offers concluded on April 1, OpenSignal said that it started recording a steady rise in average 4G speed till the end of July.

In the last six months, Jio’s typical 4G download has ballooned from 3.9 Mbps to 5.8 Mbps — that’s almost a 50% increase in speed, OpenSignal said.

“It could be that Jio has upgraded its network, adding capacity to feed its customers’ unquenchable thirst for data. It could be that customers started fleeing once the free data promotion ended, though a Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey found that most of Jio’s customers weren’t likely to jump ship. Or it could be that the customers are reining in their data use now that they actually have to pay for the megabytes and gigabytes they consume. Chances are, it’s a combination of multiple factors,” OpenSignal’s Kevin Fitchard said in a blog.

Fitchard said that Jio’s network performace could see even more improvements in the coming months.

“Now that Jio is managing its capacity better, customers can tap into more and more of that potential. In short, Jio’s 4G speed metric still has plenty of room to grow,” he said.