In an extraordinary move, Reliance Jio has written to India’s advertising standards watchdog ASCI stating that “the claim of Airtel that it is India’s fastest network is false, misleading and incorrect.” The development was first reported by ET; MediaNama reviewed a copy of the letter. Recently, Airtel put out a press statement saying that the popular speed test service Ookla has rated it as “India’s fastest mobile network”. Airtel also claimed that “Ookla's findings are based on analysis of millions of internet speed tests (done) by mobile customers across India using its (Ookla’s) Speedtest app. The results include all mobile tests, regardless of connection technology.” However, Reliance Jio is crying foul over these claims. “This claim is being made by Airtel acting in a mala fide manner in collusion with Ookla, who profess to be experts in the domain space of testing mobile Internet speed,” Jio said in its letter to ASCI. The Ambani-led telco has also issued a legal notice to Ookla stating that the method used by Ookla “was completely flawed” and that “this has been accepted by Ooka in correspondence with us”. In addition, Jio claimed that Ookla itself “represented to RJIL that RJIL’s network was the fastest in Q2 and Q3 of 2016”. Jio also pointed out that the claims in the advertisement “Officially The Fastest Network” makes it read to the public as if the authorities (DoT, TRAI) themselves has awarded the recognition. “They (Ookla) do not have accreditation from the government of India. The…
