Reliance Jio is extending the free voice, data and video offers till March 31, 2017 in order to kill its rivals such as Airtel, Idea and Vodafone.
The September offer from Reliance Jio has already impacted the data business growth of Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone India and Reliance Communications. The December offer will start impacting their revenue in the third and fourth quarter of the current fiscal.
The ongoing currency crisis is already negatively impacting cash flow of Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone India and Reliance Communications at a time when Jio is offering everything free to its subscribers.
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RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani indicated three telecom operators – Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India – are trying to stop Reliance Jio from enhancing its customer base on to its all India 4G network.
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Jio has 52 million 4G users and the target is to get 100 million subscribers. These 100 million may not be paid users on Jio network and may be the second SIM card users. But these potential voice and data users have started reducing their spending on the networks of Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone or Reliance Communications.
Reliance Jio is also offering paid services to all from January 1, 2017 if subscribers want more data.
Jio users can use data at attractive rates to consume additional data beyond 1 GB per day at regular speed. Jio has limited the high-speed-data quantity to 1 GB per day per user and user will get only 128 Kbps after using 1 GB per day. Earlier, the limit was 4 GB.
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Jio Money
JioMoney, another business revenue stream for Mukesh Ambani, is rapidly expanding its reach to millions of touch points where Aadhar based micro-ATMs will be deployed.
Jio also announced the launch of the Jio Money Merchant Solution. This solution provides access to Jio’s services, including digital money. This will enable digital transactions at big markets, small shops, restaurants, railway ticket counters, for bus and mass transit and person-to-person money transfers.
Will rivals draft new plans?
In a record breaking journey, Jio achieved 52 million 4G users in less than 3 months. But rivals know that 52 million customers are enjoying free services from Jio. Now that Reliance Jio has extended the free services till the end of the current financial year, all telecom network operators need to think again about their network and marketing strategies.
Jio continues to be the fastest growing company in the world. Jio has broken all industry records not just in India, but across the world. Jio acquired 1,000 customers per minute since 05 September or in 83 days. That means, Jio added 6 lakh users per day.
Reliance Jio has surpassed Airtel’s 41 million 3G and 4G customers. Only on 4G to 4G comparison, Jio’s 4G customer base is now 5 times that of Bharti Airtel which has around 10 million subscribers and 17 times of Idea Cellular’s 3 million subscribers.
Cutting down the price of data and voice offers may not be the right strategy for rival telecoms. They can build content business to push their data offerings. They can sell bundled phones to attract data users.
Consolidation may assist three big telecoms to improve profit and revenue. Will India see the merger among the three: Airtel, Idea and Vodafone?
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
