Reliance Jio complains to ASCI, says Airtel claims misleading

Objects to Airtel claim of fastest network, doubt Ookla's expertise, wants Airtel ad withdrawn

Reliance Jio has complained to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) that Bharti Airtel's claim of India's fastest network is false, misleading and incorrect.

"This claim is being made by Airtel acting in a mala fide manner in collusion with Ookla, LLC who profess to be experts in the domain space of testing mobile internet speed," Reliance Jio said in a letter to ASCI.

The newcomer also claimed that the methodology adopted for to determine the mobile internet speed was completely flawed and the speeds being attributed to Airtel's network may not necessarily relate to their network at all.

Reliance Jio requested ASCI to call upon Airtel to withdraw the subject advertisements and any related advertisements claiming themselves to be India's fastest mobile telecom network.

Reacting to the allegations by Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel spokesperson said "Airtel has been rated as India's fastest mobile network by Ookla - the global leader in broadband testing and web-based network diagnostic applications.

"This is clearly mentioned in the ad. Ookla's findings are based on analysis of millions of internet speed tests logged on 'modern devices' by mobile customers across India using its popular Speedtest app. The results include all mobile tests, regardless of connection technology," Airtel said.

Jamie Steven COO Ookla, in a letter to Airtel said, "Ookla is pleased to announce that Airtel is the winner of Speedtest by Ookla's Fastest Mobile Carrier Award in India. The award certifies that Airtel achieved the fastest mobile network speeds in India from consumer initiated speedtest results in Q3 and Q4 of 2016."

He said, "To determine Speedtest mobile award winners, we use test results from "modern devices" to aid in the analysis of a mobile user's typical speeds. "Modern devices" results include all mobile tests, regardless of connection technology used, as long as the test was taken on a device identified as being capable of achieving the fastest speeds available in a given country."