Reliance Industries AGM giving Airtel, Vodafone sleepless nights?
It was during the same event last year when Reliance Industries launched the Reliance Jio services, which brought about a data revolution in the country in less than a year.
- Jul 21, 2017,
- Updated Jul 21, 2017 1:32 PM IST
It was during the same event last year when Reliance Industries launched the Reliance Jio services, which brought about a data revolution in the country in less than a year. The company now commands one of the biggest shares (9.9 per cent in March) in the telecom sector's user base.
This year's event was about bringing around a "a new chapter of the JioDigitalLife". This can be an indicator of something as big as last year's unveiling. Announcements amde during the event, like launch of the cheapest 4G phone, is bound to create another phase of disruption in the telecom sector while big players like Airtel and Vodafone are already feeling the burn since Jio's entry.
Airtel reported yesterday that it suffered losses to the tune of Rs 550 crore every quarter due to 'tsunami of calls' that originated from the network of the new entrant. The telecom industry is also being forced into mergers as they fear that growing competition will leave no space for small players in the industry.
The losses of all major telecom companies even reflected in this year's budget as it showed a 44 per cent dip in revenues from the sector in 2017/18 to Rs 44,342 crore.
Even Reliance Communications, a company controlled by Mukesh Ambani's brother Anil Ambani, witnessed considerable losses since the launch of Reliance Jio. Reliance Communications said it made a consolidated net loss of Rs 9.66 billion ($149.8 million) for its fiscal fourth quarter to March 31, compared with a Rs 900 million net profit in the same period a year earlier.
This years' event will decide the course of the coming year for all major telcos.
With the launch of a 4G feature phone, which is also the cheapest device to support LTE in the world, will be troublesome for other Indian handset makers too. With the launch of the JioPhone, Reliance Jio is going for the consumer base in India still using features phones as their primary communcaton device. This has been a vast section lying largely untapped by mobile phone companies. Indian manufacturers catering to this section might find it difficult to rise with their current line-up of feature phones which still work on 2G spectrum.
Here's what we know can be revealed today:
ALSO READ: Priced at Rs 0 'India ka Smartphone' offers unlimited 4G data in just Rs 153
Cheapest 4G Phone
Chairman Mukesh Ambani officially announced the release of what he touted as the "India's intelligent phone." This will be first 4G feature phone in the world launched by Reliance Jio which operates only on the 4G spectrum.
Revealing the phone, Ambani stated it will be available at an effective price of Rs 0, but there is a catch. The company will be charging Rs 1,500 as a refundable security deposit for a period of three years.
The JioPhone will be loaded with features, as the Chairman's speech at the AGM indicated. For starters, the JioPhone will have all Jio applications preloaded.
The JioPhone will be a 100 per cent 4G LTE phone and will supports all of India's 22 languages. On the advanced side, the JioPhone will also voice command to communicate. Users can type, call, and text via voice command. Later this year, NFC will be also be made available on the JioPhone.
As security measures, any JioPhone user can long-press '5' button and it will send a distress message to their loved ones. Reliance Jio is planning to integrate local police and other security features available in the country with this device.
As a leg-up to digital transactions, payments can be done via a simple tap of the JioPhone which will have the capability to connect to credit, debit cards and UPI accounts.
Moreover, since a normal feature phone is not equipped to handle 4G spectrum, the expected feature phone might come with a basic Qualcomm chipset from its 200 series.
Cheaper tariffsReliance Jio is expected to share new data plans with its customer base. For a majority, who purchases a phone worth Rs 500, a data plan of Rs 350 or Rs 400 wouldn't make much sense, which is why Jio is also expected to launch more data plans that are much smaller and cheaper.
A recent development also suggests that the Mukesh-Ambani led company might do away with all the free offers and introduce 'minimum floor' rates.
Minimum floor price for both data and voice calls, has been demanded by a section of incumbent telecom operators, but implementing it could mean an end to freebies in the market. The tariffs are currently under forbearance giving telcos virtually a free hand in fixing the rates and they report plans to Trai within 7 days of launch.
JioFiberThis new announcement from Reliance Jio about JioFiber is expected to shake-up the broadband industry of the nation. Earlier this year, the company announced that they will be launching JioFiber in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar, Surat and Vadodara for free under its JioFiber Preview Offer.
Last week, a picture was posted on Reddit, showing us a glimpse of what the JioFiber plans might look like. The image shows that the company will be offering 100Mbps speed with a cap of 100GB per month at Rs 0 for 3 months.
The data is free but the user will have to pay Rs 4,500 for the installation.
However, even this amount can be refunded later, according to the company. One of the biggest factor with the new service will be a free-period of three months.
Later when the offer period ends, the broadband service prices are expected to start at Rs 500 for 600 GB data and for 1000 GB data at 100Mbps speed subscribers would be required to pay Rs 2,000 a month.
Also watch:
It was during the same event last year when Reliance Industries launched the Reliance Jio services, which brought about a data revolution in the country in less than a year. The company now commands one of the biggest shares (9.9 per cent in March) in the telecom sector's user base.
This year's event was about bringing around a "a new chapter of the JioDigitalLife". This can be an indicator of something as big as last year's unveiling. Announcements amde during the event, like launch of the cheapest 4G phone, is bound to create another phase of disruption in the telecom sector while big players like Airtel and Vodafone are already feeling the burn since Jio's entry.
Airtel reported yesterday that it suffered losses to the tune of Rs 550 crore every quarter due to 'tsunami of calls' that originated from the network of the new entrant. The telecom industry is also being forced into mergers as they fear that growing competition will leave no space for small players in the industry.
The losses of all major telecom companies even reflected in this year's budget as it showed a 44 per cent dip in revenues from the sector in 2017/18 to Rs 44,342 crore.
Even Reliance Communications, a company controlled by Mukesh Ambani's brother Anil Ambani, witnessed considerable losses since the launch of Reliance Jio. Reliance Communications said it made a consolidated net loss of Rs 9.66 billion ($149.8 million) for its fiscal fourth quarter to March 31, compared with a Rs 900 million net profit in the same period a year earlier.
This years' event will decide the course of the coming year for all major telcos.
With the launch of a 4G feature phone, which is also the cheapest device to support LTE in the world, will be troublesome for other Indian handset makers too. With the launch of the JioPhone, Reliance Jio is going for the consumer base in India still using features phones as their primary communcaton device. This has been a vast section lying largely untapped by mobile phone companies. Indian manufacturers catering to this section might find it difficult to rise with their current line-up of feature phones which still work on 2G spectrum.
Here's what we know can be revealed today:
ALSO READ: Priced at Rs 0 'India ka Smartphone' offers unlimited 4G data in just Rs 153
Cheapest 4G Phone
Chairman Mukesh Ambani officially announced the release of what he touted as the "India's intelligent phone." This will be first 4G feature phone in the world launched by Reliance Jio which operates only on the 4G spectrum.
Revealing the phone, Ambani stated it will be available at an effective price of Rs 0, but there is a catch. The company will be charging Rs 1,500 as a refundable security deposit for a period of three years.
The JioPhone will be loaded with features, as the Chairman's speech at the AGM indicated. For starters, the JioPhone will have all Jio applications preloaded.
The JioPhone will be a 100 per cent 4G LTE phone and will supports all of India's 22 languages. On the advanced side, the JioPhone will also voice command to communicate. Users can type, call, and text via voice command. Later this year, NFC will be also be made available on the JioPhone.
As security measures, any JioPhone user can long-press '5' button and it will send a distress message to their loved ones. Reliance Jio is planning to integrate local police and other security features available in the country with this device.
As a leg-up to digital transactions, payments can be done via a simple tap of the JioPhone which will have the capability to connect to credit, debit cards and UPI accounts.
Moreover, since a normal feature phone is not equipped to handle 4G spectrum, the expected feature phone might come with a basic Qualcomm chipset from its 200 series.
Cheaper tariffsReliance Jio is expected to share new data plans with its customer base. For a majority, who purchases a phone worth Rs 500, a data plan of Rs 350 or Rs 400 wouldn't make much sense, which is why Jio is also expected to launch more data plans that are much smaller and cheaper.
A recent development also suggests that the Mukesh-Ambani led company might do away with all the free offers and introduce 'minimum floor' rates.
Minimum floor price for both data and voice calls, has been demanded by a section of incumbent telecom operators, but implementing it could mean an end to freebies in the market. The tariffs are currently under forbearance giving telcos virtually a free hand in fixing the rates and they report plans to Trai within 7 days of launch.
JioFiberThis new announcement from Reliance Jio about JioFiber is expected to shake-up the broadband industry of the nation. Earlier this year, the company announced that they will be launching JioFiber in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar, Surat and Vadodara for free under its JioFiber Preview Offer.
Last week, a picture was posted on Reddit, showing us a glimpse of what the JioFiber plans might look like. The image shows that the company will be offering 100Mbps speed with a cap of 100GB per month at Rs 0 for 3 months.
The data is free but the user will have to pay Rs 4,500 for the installation.
However, even this amount can be refunded later, according to the company. One of the biggest factor with the new service will be a free-period of three months.
Later when the offer period ends, the broadband service prices are expected to start at Rs 500 for 600 GB data and for 1000 GB data at 100Mbps speed subscribers would be required to pay Rs 2,000 a month.
Also watch: