The competition among the telecom providers in India is brewing for a while. Ever since the launch Reliance Jio Welcome Offer in India, the rival competitors have been coming up with attractive offers for their user base. Airtel is still coming up with aggressive offers on a regular basis. Now, Airtel has dropped a major hint on what’s to come in the near future. The company is expected to come up with even more aggressive bundled packs to counter Reliance Jio data offers.
The Bharti Airtel’s managing director for India and South Asia, Gopal Vittal told the Economic Times that while it’s difficult to compete with a free services offer, once the Jio’s full-fledged price is launched sometime in December, Airtel will come up with aggressive 4G bundled packs to take them on shortly. However, he did not share any details.
The Reliance Jio has had a deep impact on Airtel’s quarterly earnings, which showed a 10 percent dip in the data realization in the September quarter. Additionally, the year-on-year data revenue growth was the slowest in the company’s history. It makes sense for Airtel to come with aggressive 4G bundles to maintain its users base. We’ll have to wait a little to find what the company has in store for us.
At this point, it would be wise to wait a little before switching to Reliance Jio. While Jio is offering free 4G internet, HD calls, and MyJio services for free, the call coverage is not as stable. Also, there has been an issue with speed drops. Recently, TRAI ranked Jio at fifth place in the 4G speed category.
The Reliance Jio is currently ranked as the world’s largest data carrier company. Recently, the company announced that it has added 24 million users to its network. It aims to reach 100 million users by March 2018. While the network claims to be adding almost 1 million subscribers per day, the numbers are expected to drop after Jio’s paid service launch on January 1, 2017. The Reliance Jio offers 4G data with a daily FUP limit of 4GB. The tariffs start at Rs. 149 per 28 days for 300MB 4G data, unlimited HD calls, and 100 SMS. The plans go as high as Rs. 4,999 for 75GB limit for 28 days.