Reliance Jio: The ground reality isn’t as reliable as you thought

Mukesh Ambani’s dream project Reliance Jio was unveiled amidst a lot of hype and anticipation. Those who had tried out the Jio network completely free without any limits on usage under its Preview offer couldn’t stop boasting about its fast and reliable connectivity.

Then, when the company announced its full product along with the Jio Welcome program, under which you can use 4GB of 4G data daily on Jio network without paying anything until December 31, 2016, the hysteria obviously knew no bounds.

That’s precisely the reason Jio SIM cards are impossible to find now as the company is - according to sources - struggling to activate the huge number of SIMs it issued on the very first day of availability.

Sadly, that is only one among many glitches with Jio. Routine call-drops, sunken speeds, and network disconnection from time to time hold as true as the first problem.

Now the latter at least can be blamed on Jio's ongoing tussle with other telcos. Reliance Jio has called for MNP support from other telcos and said that it will record operator-wise call-drops data. Last week, Trai also met with telecom operators to discuss interconnect issues. But even leaving aside those concerns, Jio is definitely facing a tough time in terms of delivering its service.

According to NDTV, “during the Preview Offer period, seeing speeds between 20Mbps and 25Mbps was the norm in South Bengaluru. Now, seeing speeds in excess of 5Mbps is cause for celebration. Over an extended period of usage, typical speeds have stayed under 3.5Mbps.”

The report quotes a Mumbai-based Jio user who says that the Jio’s speeds have plummeted big time between the preview offer and after launch.

"I was regularly getting speeds of over 20Mbps. Now it's usually under 5Mbps. People had been talking about using Jio as a replacement for wired broadband, and even I was thinking of doing that, but with the speed being so unreliable, I don't think it makes sense at all," he said. Then there is call-drop issue which on average figures around 25-30 times a day.

Mukesh Ambani’s company claims that Reliance Jio is the only "full-4G" network in India. It's been built from the ground up for high-speed data, apparently. But unless the company can find a way to cope with the huge influx of users that it's facing right now, it's definition of high-speed will be as bogus as the definition of broadband in India.

Also, read Register online to get Jio SIM card delivered at your doorstep.