THE DAWN OF A DIGITAL ERA: HOW JIO CHANGED INDIA

This article serves as a follow up to Impact of Jio

Indian telecom scene was quite dull. But that was before Jio stepped in 2016. Entry of Jio, the ambitious telecom project by the country’s richest man Mukesh Ambani has forced the Indian telecom to undergo a major overhaul of all sorts.

Reliance Jio had been offering free services to everybody since 5th September 2016 which ended on 15th April 2017 officially. Jio’s strategy was pretty simple – try before you actually start paying. Jio is a LTE only network, perhaps the first in the world, which uses solely VoLTE for carrying voice.

The company’s 4G data services provided consumers the option to watch more online videos and other content than ever before, something that became apparent when India jumped ahead of the US and China to take the position of world’s biggest consumer of mobile data. Indian users found a new found freedom – they could actually use data without worrying about data being over and talk time being deducted from the main balance.

Here are some trends/impacts/changes which Jio bought:

• Free voice calls: Voice calls became free for all consumers across networks when Jio launched operations. The company has said both local and STD calls will always be free on its network, to all networks. Incumbent operators were forced to follow suit, offering prepaid and postpaid combo packs with bundled with data and free minutes for STD and local voice calls to all networks. According to recent statistics, Jio claims its network presently carries 250 crore minutes a day of calls.

• Cheap data: Before the entry of Reliance Jio, data was rather expensive and consumers had to shell out up to Rs. 350 for 1GB of data. The highlight of Jio’s launch offer was the free data it was offering to consumers, with 4GB of high-speed of 4G data per day, followed by continued data at 128kbps speed. Eventually the company had to launch chargeable plans after incumbent operators protested, but even then the tariff was so low that consumers paid roughly Rs. 10 per GB of 4G data. Jio initially started out at Rs. 309 for 84GB data for 84 Days (FUP of 1GB/day) bundled with unlimited calling, free national roaming and SMS. Currently, Jio gives the same benefits at a rate of Rs. 399, which is still a killer deal considering the past.

• Faster mobile data: According to the latest data by TRAI’s MySpeed app, Jio offers average download speeds of around 18Mbps, while the incumbents deliver roughly 10Mbps speeds. Jio has been consistently topping the speed for charts for over 6 months in a row since April 2017.

• A record in user acquisition: In February, Jio claimed its telecom network had garnered 100 million users in less than six months of operations. At the time, Chairman Mukesh Ambani had said this growth is faster than even what global giants such as Facebook and WhatsApp recorded.  Jio currently has a little over 138 million users under its belt.
  

• Improved broadband Internet availability: With the free Internet, millions of people got access to high-speed 4G services, and Jio became the country’s biggest provider of broadband Internet – and that’s without the public launch of JioFiber service.

• Penetration of 4G smartphones: The market for 4G smartphones exploded after Jio services were launched as everyone had access to the company’s 4G network for free. Post-Jio, 4G VoLTE-capable smartphones started hitting the market for as low as Rs. 3000.

All Indian operators were bleeding due to the aggressive pricing of Jio. They suffered huge losses but were forced to make further investments to expand their 4G. They had to also slash their tariffs to provide some competition to Jio. Else they would be out of the game. This led to a series of consolidations, mergers and shut down.

• Vodafone-Idea merger: India’s 2nd and 3rd largest telecom operators joined their hands for a merger. Vodafone will own 45.1% of the combined company after transferring a 4.9% stake to the Aditya Birla Group for Rs 3,900 crore in cash, concurrent with completion of the merger. The Aditya Birla Group will then own 26% of the combined company. It is expected to be completed by Q2 of 2018.
• The merged entity would overtake Bharti Airtel as India’s largest operator with over 400 million customers. Currently, Airtel has nearly 260 million customers. The merged entity would also have a good amount of spectrum across various bands such as 900, 1800, 2100, 2300 and 2500 MHz. The merged co can also provide serious competition to Airtel and Jio if they have a good strategy in mind.

• Airtel-(TATA, Telenor) merger: Airtel recently entered into agreements to buy out Telenor (uninor) and TATA Teleservices. Under the agreement, Bharti gets access to the precious spectrum and customers held by both companies. This increases both the customers and spectrum holding of the company.

Jio has also been implementing latest 4G technologies. It currently supports 3 Way Carrier Aggregation (LTE-A / LTE+), which combines 3 bands (850+1800+2300) and draws data simultaneously. Personally I have got speeds a whopping 110 Mbps on Jio with 3 CA. Comparing Incumbents, Airtel provides 2 Way CA, combining 1800+2300 MHz bands.

If you were to consider government run BSNL, they have been providing decent competition by offering plans on par or even better than Jio. However the let down is that they are still behind in the race due to lack of 4G. Services are being provided using 2G/3G which just can’t match the level of 4G.

It is only because of Jio that other operators have started to up their game. In the end, it is the customer who benefits the most because he can get quality services at affordable rates.

As an end user, Jio has certainly had an impact on my life. From using mobile data just for WhatsApp and basic browsing, my usage now includes YouTube to Tethering. From a meagre 1GB a month, now not even 1GB/day suffices. Such is the change that Jio has bought in. Coupled with the unlimited calling and roaming, Jio certainly has helped many Indians save their money.

So here’s us at Software Pen wishing all the best for their future endeavors. Jio has saved millions of Indians from the looting of incumbent operators over the years.