MUMBAI: India’s mobile-telephony companies are headed for a fresh round of price wars after the country’s richest man said his carrier, Reliance Jio Infocomm, will charge its subscribers from April 1, but at sharply discounted rates.
After six months of offering all services for free, a plan that helped Reliance Jio net 100 million subscribers in a record time, chairman Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said that Reliance Jio would not levy fees on calls. For the next financial year beginning April 1, the company’s existing users and those coming on board this March will continue to get 1 GB of data a day and all of Reliance Jio’s apps for Rs 303 a month and a one-time cost of Rs 99. By contrast, market leader Bharti Airtel offers unlimited calls and 1GB of 4G data at Rs 345 for 28 days.
Airtel also offers 30GB of data for 90 days at Rs 1,495. For Rs 349, Bharti’s nearest rival Vodafone offers unlimited calls and 50 MB of 3G or 1GB of 4G data, also for 28 days.
Once Reliance Jio users have signed up for Jio Prime plan, they will have to make a monthly payment of Rs. 303 for the free data and services. The plan comes into effect on April 1, 2017, the day the existing Jio Happy New Year Offer expires.
Those who do not opt for the Jio Prime subscription plan will be ported to the prepaid or postpaid Reliance Jio tariff plans, which the company had announced in September 2016 while launching its services. Ambani stressed that despite the free data plans not being valid starting April 1, all voice calls on the network will remain free indefinitely - with no roaming charges.
Additionally, Ambani said that Jio will continually strive to be the most value-for-money telecom operator in the country. He said that with a large number of bundled data and unlimited calling plans have given rise to "data and value fatigue," which entail missing out on the best value for the price users are paying for their mobile plans.
To address this, Jio will set up a process of monitoring all publicly announced plans from all operators across the country on a regular basis, he said. Jio will then not only match the highest-selling tariffs of each of the leading operators but also provide 20 percent more data than the respective highest-selling plans. This will be in addition to the Jio prepaid and postpaid plans that have already been announced by the company.
PRICE POINT TO COMPETE
To be sure, the introduction of a subscription fee is still a relief to the incumbent companies that now have a tangible price point around which to build their service packages unlike in the past where, as analysts said, they were practically shooting in the dark.
Rajan S Mathews, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India, said paid services would mean that “consumer choice and preferences will now be revealed in the ma ..
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