Reliance Jio Calls Airtel's Fastest Network Claims 'False, Misleading'; Serves Legal Notice to Ookla

Reliance Jio has filed a complaint against broadband tester Ookla's claim that Bharti Airtel offers the fastest network speed. In its complaint, lodged with Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), Jio has called Airtel advertisements based on the Ookla report "false, misleading, and incorrect."

"The claim of Airtel that it is India's fastest network is false, misleading and incorrect. The 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," stated the letter sent by Reliance Jio to ASCI, the advertising watchdog, a copy of which is available with IANS.

Reliance Jio has also served a legal notice to Ookla over its "flawed" test.

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Jio told ASCI that Ookla - which had dubbed Airtel as "Officially The Fastest Network" - does not have any accreditation from the Indian government.

"Without prejudice to the above, in any event, the way the award is being projected misleads the public into believing that Airtel has the fastest network today, that is when the advertisements are being aired/published," the letter said.

Reliance Jio, which has over 100 million users, also stated that Ookla is not a "not-for-profit" organisation. "It charges money for its services used by telecom companies for their internal consumption, and charges additional consideration" for awarding certificates "that may be used by such companies for external consumption, marketing and publicity".

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"Even in the past, Airtel has been guilty of making attempts to use such titles and proclamations," the letter states.

Clarifying its position, an 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 advertisement. 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 speed test app. The results include all mobile tests, regardless of connection technology," he added.

Written with IANS inputs