Ookla's speedtest results spark a war of words between Airtel and Reliance Jio

"Jio claims Ookla's speedtest results are flawed"

Speedtest app Ookla rated Airtel the fast mobile carrier in India for the period Q3 and Q4 2016. After the announcement, Airtel ran advertisements on TV and other mediums highlighting the same. But Reliance Jio refuted the claim, filing a complaint against Airtel's campaign with the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), alleging that the ads are false, misleading and incorrect.

 

In its complaint, Jio noted that Ookla has no accreditation from the Indian government and was colluding with Airtel.

The newcomer telco also said that it has served Ookla a legal notice. 

In a press release, Jio stated "

"The core issue is that the speedtest results are attributed to the primary SIM even though the SIM for which the data speedtest is conducted is the secondary SIM in the case of dual-SIM phones. In India, more than 90% of 4G phones are dual-SIM. Therefore, there is no guarantee



that the speed which is attributed to Airtel is of the Airtel data network."

Ookla responded to the allegation, saying it was aware of Android's limitations in not always indicating the data provider in dual-SIM devices. To ensure accurate results, Ookla says it uses additional data sources after the testing process to determine the actual carrier "with a high degree of confidence". Ookla added that after a complete analysis was performed, Airtel's margin of victory increased. 

Airtel, for it's part, said that "We believe that this is a deliberate attempt to malign our brand and misguide customers through a campaign of misinformation, which is something we now come across on a regular basis, in particular, on social media platforms"

The conflict between Airtel and Reliance Jio have intensified over the last few weeks, with the latter sending out another statement at the time of publishing continuing to disagree with Ookla's findings.