A month with Reliance Jio – here is our report

Last month, I got a chance to try out the Reliance Jio network and I have been using LYF WInd 1 smartphone. There is nothing much to talk about the phone and you can read my review of the phone here.  I had also penned FAQ post to help get to know more about Reliance Jio network. In this post, I have penned my experience with Jio 4G with LYF Wind 1. Read On!

Data

Absolutely flawless. Till now, I had never used a phone’s LTE data network 24/7. With Jio 4G LTE, you can be sure that whereever you go (atleast in Bangalore), you will be connected. The speeds are very good. Such is the consistency and reliability of Jio 4G data network that I havent even configured Wi-Fi on my phone. Be at home or be in office, I am using 4G LTE. After all, its way way faster than either network. There were instances where I got 50+ MBps.

There is quite a difference though in speed when you are outdoor and while you are indoor. The highest speed that I saw was when I was outdoor. While indoor, the speed fell to 2-3MBps but never did it fail to load. Do note that 2-3Mbps may be slow compared to 40-50Mbps but that still is a good speed for casual surfing. On an average, the speeds stays above 10Mbps which is more than what I get at home.

I have used around 5GB of data this month (yeah, its far from the 75GB for 90 day cap) but I never took the connection for the sake of downloading pirated material. Thanks to the consistency and the large data cap, I now open streaming sites like YouTube without the fear or emptying my data cap. But once I am moved to commercial plan and if I have a data cap that is less than 5GB, I have to be a bit more careful.

Voice

If you are having connectivity or call drop issues with Airtel or Vodafone, Jio will redefine the term ‘connectivity issues’. Most of the time you have to redial 20-25 times for a call to initiate as you get ‘all lines are busy, please try after some time’.  And the same issue exists if someone is trying to reach you on your Jio number. They have to try at least half a dozen times for most part of the day.

The worst part is when you are trying to reach your family member who is using Airtel or Vodafone connection in Bangalore. It will take at least a dozen tries to get the call to initiate and then you end up with ‘the airtel/vodafone number you are calling is out of coverage area’. Like, right now, I had to try 18 times and once the call was initiated, my wife’s Airtel number was not reachable (then it took another 7 tries to finally reach her phone). Or you get a call to initiate after trying for so many times and then thanks to poor Airtel network, the call drops and you repeat the whole process again. It will be easier to get on a bike, drive home and talk to my wife than trying to talk by calling through Jio phone. So, if the other person is connected to Wi-FI or on Jio network, you better give a voice call using Skype or Whatsapp.

Even if the call gets connected, the quality of the LYF handset is so bad (LYF Wind 1, priced at 7k) that the clarity of voice that you hear is tinny, tiny and muddy. As a result of this, I barely use the phone for calling. Do you remember that quality of voice from those really old land line phones where there is lot of noise in the background and you have to press the phone to your ear very hard. Its like that with a LYF phone.

DO NOTE THAT THIS COULD BE DUE TO THROTTLING DONE BY JIO AS ITS NOT YET READY FOR PUBLIC USE.

Jio ecosystem

Hit and Miss. I have used subscription/streaming services like Magzter (Magazines), Kindle Unlimited (books), Netflix (movies) and the experience that Jio Apps provides is much less. But, what I pay to consume content via Jio ecosystem is nothing when compared to what I shell out for these services (700/- for netflix, 199/- for magzter, 299/- for kindle, 165/- for apple music etc). And I have not yet talked about Live TV. This is definitely best part of Jio. The ability to watch live TV anywhere and everywhere is amazing. I am a big fan of F1 and I watch TV either for F1 or for Soccer. There were times when I had to be out of town or outside of home and instead of paying monthly rental of 199/- to F1 to get Live Timing, I can watch the whole race. The same applies to Soccer too.

The catch here is that you can access Jio apps from any device (iOS, Android) as long as you have active Jio ID. I have tried live TV on iPhone and it looks awesome. Unlike Hotstar where there is a couple of minute delay to please cable/satelliteTV operators, this one is ‘LIVE’.

Conclusion

Reliance’s Jio is very good. I would’ve rated it 100/100 if not for those really irritating voice call issues and the pathetic LYF phones that the network is locked to. As of now, I would rate it at 70/100. After all, the prime reason why we carry a phone is to make voice calls. Again, I am iterating the fact that the network is ‘not yet’ ready in Bangalore and the reason am stressing on call quality is to warn those who want to use Jio 4G LTE as their primary phone. If you want to try Jio, act like a beta tester and use it alongside your primary (current) connection. If you are really compelled to get a connection, get an eligible Samsung phone instead of wasting your money on LYF phones.