The number of high ARPU customers (ARPU of over Rs 300) is expected to reach 300 million by March 2018 from 165 million currently due to the increase in 3G / 4G adoption in India.
High ARPU customers are set to account for 60 percent of industry revenues, said CLSA in its latest report.
TelecomLead.com estimates that an ARPU of Rs 300 from 300 million mobile customers will generate roughly Rs 108,000 crore per year from 3G and 4G services by March 2018 for telecom operators. This may be reason why AT&T and Virgin Mobile wanted to test Indian telecom market, according to media reports.
The telecom analysis on Indian telecom operators said Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel have adequate 3G / 4G spectrum. On the other hand, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India need further spectrum to boost mobile Internet business.
Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm are better placed to gain market share in this opportunity given their spectrum capacity, cell sites and fiber advantage over other telecom operators. “In the near term, telecom operators could see an impact on data traffic / revenues depending on the take-up of the offer,” said CLSA.
Another report in 2015 indicated that the blended ARPU of Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel will decline in 2016.
The latest offer from Reliance Industries where each employee can invite 10 friends to sign up for Jio 4G services will propel usage and hype ahead of the commercial launch that is expected sometime this year.
OnePlus, a new entrant in the smartphone market, has implemented a similar strategy in 2014-15 during the launch of its handsets to generate hype and maintain user experience through control over inventory.
Given that current mobile data tariffs make video viewing very expensive, unlimited access to video content on mobile will support seeding of video consumption habits on mobile devices and could propel data usage.
While the 3G / 4G adoption has picked up with subscribers tripling over the past two years to 120 million, Reliance Jio’s 4G launch should help accelerate this adoption. There will be more subscriber tests were likely, closer to the commercial launch, IANS reported.
Jio offer comes with 90 days of unlimited access to high-definition voice and video, high-speed data and SMS. This apart, the offer also comes with access to 10 Jio apps, including its chat, on-demand video, music, news, cloud back-up and one for personal security.
