Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom venture promoted by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has added 50 million 4G subscribers in less than three months.
Reliance Jio is now the largest broadband operator in India, well ahead of BSNL, Bharti Airtel, among others.
Reliance Jio announced its Welcome Offer on 5 September. As per the Welcome Offer, Reliance Jio is offering free voice, data and roaming services to its customers on pan India basis.
There are question marks on the quality of services from Jio — especially in rural areas. The Indian telecom industry is also cagey about the number of active users on Jio network. If one customer is adding 4-5 SIMs during the welcome offer, it may not add value to Reliance Jio in the long-run.
Jio achieves when rivals face tough market
The current currency crisis has positively impacted Jio which is offering free voice, data and roaming services to all till the end of 2016 and free voice and roaming to all customers for life time. The note issue had impacted all the rivals of Reliance Jio.
According to industry estimates, if there is a significant drop in the GDP growth of India in the current fiscal, it will impact the revenue growth of top telecom operators in the country. Both currency issue and Jio will impact the revenue streams of Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Vodafone India.
Jio grows
Jio has acquired 1,000 4G customers per minute since September 5 and 6 lakh per day.
Bharti Airtel, the main rival of Reliance Jio Infocomm, reached 50 million subscribers in 12 years, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular took 13 years each, PTI reports. But it is not party time for Jio because these 50 million are not paid users.
Reliance Jio added 16 million users in the first month of its commercial operations. The entire telecom industry could not add this 16 million in one month.
The mobile subscriber base of Reliance Jio has reached one fifth that of Bharti Airtel, which had 262.67 million mobile subscribers in October. Vodafone has 201.90 million subscribers and Idea Cellular 180.25 million users.
Time taken to reach 50 million
Indian telecoms
Airtel – 12 years
Vodafone – 13 years
Idea Cellular – 13 years
Apps/ social media
Whatsapp — 44 months
Facebook – 42 months
Twitter – 9 months
Instagram – 6 months
Reliance Jio has signed up an average of 6 lakh subscribers a day, which is a globally unprecedented feat for any customer-facing company including the likes of Whatsapp, Facebook and Skype.
Reliance Jio has become India’s largest digital services operator with the highest number of mobile broadband users overtaking Bharti Airtel’s 41 million 3G and 4G customers combined acquired over last six years.
On 4G to 4G comparison, Reliance Jio’s customer base is five times that of Bharti Airtel, which has around 10 million subscribers and 17 times of Idea Cellular which has 3 million subscribers.
Mukesh Ambani aims to acquire 100 million 4G customers in the shortest possible time and create a new world record – translating into a data usage of 250 crore gigabyte per month.
From January 1, 2017 Jio will charge Rs 19 a day for occasional data users, Rs 149 a month for low data users and Rs 4,999 per month for heavy data subscribers. Jio will offer voice and roaming services, free for life, PTI reports.
Voice service is the life line for rival telecom operators with more than 80 percent revenue coming from voice business alone. Mukesh Ambani is trying to kill rivals by launching a budget phone with VoLTE facilities. Free voice service will attract millions of customers even if they are charged for data services.
But industry analysts say only less than 10 percent of customers will become paid users if a user joins a services company opting for a free offer. The industry is waiting for the subscriber figures after Jio starts charging for its data consumed by 4G subscribers.
Baburajan K
