The buzz is everywhere in the
Telecom sector that Reliance Jio will be coming out with very aggressive tariff which will be bundled with cheaper device from LYF as well as device from their
panel. Reliance Jio intention is to focus on the data revenue through series of
data centric applications or games or services whereas offering subsidised
voice or free voice.
Even Bharti Airtel Chairman Mr.Sunil Mittal also admitted that Reliance Jio entry will change the tariff
dynamics of Indian mobility segment and it will take an year to settle down the
dust. The impending price war will also force some of the running Telco to go
for merge or will be acquired by big fish.
In the meantime, In order to
create non breakable wall to protect their high APRU user Bharti Airtel came
out with myPlan Infinity. In the two
plan segment, Under 1199 plan user will get free voice call , few free SMS and
1GB of 3G/4G data free along with Wink movie and music whereas under 1599; the
data pack offering is increased to 5GB.
I call the proposition a master
proposition as Bharti Airtel is well aware that average data consumption per
user per month stands at 0.9GB and at the same time, they will promote their
in-house product which will trigger user
to use higher data at the same time reduce the Bharti Airtel user acquisition
price for those product by INR 50 .Bharti Airtel is also well aware that the
average ARPU per user is around $3.2 on a consolidated basis but when it comes
to postpaid it comes up around $10. In new plan they will increase the ARPU by
$7. On contrary, in 1599 plan, Bharti
Airtel is trying to attract very heavy data user and am sure that they will be
putting the new plan attached user under priority based queuing access
mechanism to ensure the best QoS ( Quality of Service).
The proposed plan will also
attract many prepaid users who will be willing to convert into post paid given
the fixed rate as it include all the options of calling including roaming. At
the same time, In my point of view many
users from other network who is not happy with their service providers will opt
of Mobile Number Portability and switch over to Bharti Airtel
It will be interesting to see
Reliance Jio marketing strategist movement to super counter Bharti Airtel
classic move. I also believe the further delay by Reliance Jio will put
Reliance Jio in difficult position to lure away high APRU userbase from
competitor.
