The picture of PM Narendra Modi in full page Reliance Jio advertisements on the launch of its telecom service kicked up a controversy with Opposition parties taking jibes at him. The company has also filed the tariff plans for wireless services with TRAI.
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Industry insiders and analysts predict that Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular will slash their rates to respond to the enticing tariffs that Jio is offering.
The telecom venture led by Ambani had launched services for its employees late December and later extended them to their families and friends, taking the overall consumer base to a little over 5 lakh. It was reported that two listed telecom operators, Airtel and Idea, lost around Rs 13,000 crore during the 45-minute announcement of the launch of Reliance Jio services.
Jio will effectively price one gigabyte of data at about 50 rupees for some users, about one-fifth of what rivals charge, Ambani said.
According to sources, the Jio SIM – which so far was available only at Reliance Digital stores – will now also be offered through multi-brand outlets and mobile phone shops.
“The biggest draw of Jio’s 4G SIM is free mobile internet till December 31”, said a Jio customer in Kolkata. Currently, the walk-in customers are not able to get SIM cards immediately. This issue is not only restricted to this particular store, and a similar issue is being faced by eager customers across the country. Jio may extend the period of free services in case Jio subscribers are not able to get adequate experience of seamless connectivity across network due to POI congestion and MNP restrictions and the quality of service parameters are not as per the benchmarks desired by RJIL management.
While Jio’s connections come free under the Welcome Offer, some independent retail stores in Delhi were charging Rs 300-1,000 for a new SIM without promise of activation. Talking about the yesterday, the day marked the availability of JIO SIM cards under the Welcome Offer. The disruptive data tariffs, free voice calls and nationwide free roaming marks a beginning of a new era. ARPU is average revenue per user.
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So, yes, Airtel is certainly cheaper than Jio for those who use only data, but it is Jio which is responsible for changing the market in such a way that these kind of offers are possible or even thinkable. At Jio’s current pricing, the per megabit realisation is 11-12 paise, while incumbents realise 20-21 paise. Upon inspection, we noticed that Reliance Jio offers a wide range of plan to cater to all sections of people.
