All you need to know about Jio phenomenon

Unless you were away from all the hullabaloo that happened in the last couple of weeks, you must already be aware of Jio. Since September 2, when Reliance Industries CMD Mukesh Ambani took to the stage and explained his company's grand plan to rule India's telecom market, Jio has been everywhere. It has been featured on front-page advertisements in newspapers, it has trended on social media, and it has found a place on countless of webpages for reasons both right and wrong.

Jio is a 4G service by Reliance Industries. It is the company's big bang entry into Indian telecom market which has largely been dominated by companies like Airtel, Vodafone and BSNL. Now, other companies too are offering 4G services. But there are some differences between Jio and the others. One, Jio is promising cheaper data - in some cases as cheap as `50 per 1GB - compared to what others provide. Even though there is a fine print to all this, it is expected that Jio's entry will force the price of data in India to go down. The second difference between Jio and other services is that, according to Reliance, Jio is an all 4G network. This means you get 4G all the time, with no switching to 2G or 3G. Even the voice calls are made using the 4G data, which is why they are unlimited and free on Jio network. For consumers, this means they can expect, at least theoretically, lower phone bills, faster Internet speed (no more YouTube buffering and better WhatsApp calls) and more data at the same price.

How you can get a Jio sim

Starting September 5, the Jio SIM is free to anyone with a valid ID card in India as part of its welcome offer. All you have to do is walk into a Reliance Digital store or a Reliance Xpress Mini store. To use this SIM, you will need a 4G-compatible phone. Reliance has published a list of over 100 phones that are supported and chances are that if your smartphone is less than a year old, it is compatible with the Jio SIM. Easy-peasy, right? Not really. So great is the rush for Jio SIM cards - it's free after all - that getting one now is almost impossible. If you do decide to get one from a Reliance store, be prepared to wait at least couple of weeks before you can get a SIM card. After that, there is a similar rush in the case of the activation process.

That too can take a few days. Reliance is trying to fix the issue and make the registration as well as activation faster by using a Aadhar-based KYC process but that is only available in handful of cities right now.

The other way to get a SIM card (and the one that is easier) is by buying a new 4G phone, including Lyf phones sold by Reliance. If you buy a 4G phone now, dealers are usually bundling a Jio SIM with it. It's an easy option, although in our opinion, not worth the price.

The JioFi route, on the other hand, is totally worth the price. Most people want Jio for data use and that is exactly what JioFi, a Wi-Fi router with a SIM inside it does. This dongle costs `1,999, and right now is actually one of the easiest ways to get into the Jio network.

What you can expect

Jio promises the moon. But it is not delivering that yet. When it started rolling out a few months ago, the service was fairly great. Now, when it has acquired millions of consumers, the Internet speed has gone down and the voice calls rarely go through because of congestion that is party accentuated by Jio's fight with Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and others. Also, initially Jio offered unlimited data to all users. But now there is a limit - albeit very generous - of 4GB per day.

The speed is mostly good on smartphones. You will notice that it is faster than what Airtel and others offer with their 4G. But it is also erratic, especially if you are on the road. At the same time, when used as a hotspot, the performance is a mixed bag.

It works great for torrents but for everything else, the speed is not so good and hovers between 1mbps and 3mbps. During the night it gets better.

As far as calls using Jio are concerned, they are a bit of a hassle because of the congestion. This, we feel, is more to do with the fight between telecom operators and less with the technology, which seems sound.

Using the Jio feels like you are using a network that is in its beta stage. And it is in beta stage, which is why it is free until December 31.

There are nuts and bolts that Jio probably needs to tighten. Whether it will happen or not is something only time will tell. For now it sure looks like a winning preposition for consumers for two plain reasons: One, it's free. And two, whether it lives up to the hype or not, it is going to change India's telecom industry for the better.

(In association with Mail Today Bureau)