4G LTE Broadband

Airtel Optimizing 4G VoLTE Network, lags Jio in Coverage

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We went through the Bharti Airtel’s Annual Report and here are the key takeaways. Bharti Telecom’s Airtel managed to increase wireless capacity by 35% with tower count increase of just 11%, suggesting that the rest came from re-farming 2G spectrum to 4G and from other capacity augmentation techniques such as beam-splitting. Airtel is still expanding the tower count, whereas Jio, which has relatively 30% more towers, is closer to the maximum feasible count indicating 4G coverage, subscribers and revenue market share of Jio being ahead of Airtel.

Bharti ran a special programme with its network vendors, to increase spectral efficiency by up to 5% in all circles. It deployed 280 Massive MIMO sites in FY21, well below Vi’s 1,700. It appears that Airtel is less reliant on massive MIMO as a capacity

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Airtel Offloads 37% Voice to VoLTE

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Incumbent Telecom Operator Bharti Airtel Ltd has been managing 2G / 3G and 4G Networks. Though off late, they are re-farming the 3G Spectrum to 4G LTE Network. An achievement worth mentioning is that Airtel has offloaded 37% of its Voice Traffic to VoLTE. This is made possible with the mass availability of VoLTE compatible handsets in the market. Additionally, 38m subs can use VoWi-Fi based on device compatibility; 2m are the daily active subs and 5m+ users have used this service till now at least once. Post Airtel VoWi-Fi rollout, there has been a 73% increase in call duration and 42% reduction in failed call attempts due to improved indoor experience.

850MHz acquired from Tata Indicom is actively used by Airtel. Airtel has 850MHz wireless spectrum in 5 circles though it has 5MHz in none of these. In two circles, it uses the 850 band for LTE. Being sub 1 GHz spectrum, it is used to improve reach and

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What is Jio’s Strategy for Jio Phone/ 4G / GigaFiber ?

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We happened to be in the analyst Call with Reliance Jio executives and here is what the company had to share.

Interconnect Usage Charges – IUC top-up recharge should not be seen as a tariff move, the company emphasized strongly. The company categorically stated that the investment cycle in 4G LTE Wireless Network is largely done and capex intensity on the wireless business would be low hereon. The company, once again, emphasized its network coverage and capacity advantage over peers suggesting that Airtel would take 3 years and Vodafone Idea would take 8 years to match Jio on network if (a) these two keep their current network expansion pace going, and (b) Jio were to stop adding capacity.

Jio indicated strong response

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Jio’s Akash Ambani Innovating, Patenting & Disrupting Punching Competition

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Akash Ambani led Reliance Jio Infocomm has always thought beyond pure play telecom services. Jio network has advance(d) features such as Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV). It is ready for future evolution of technology, including transition to 5G with minimal additional capital expenditure in the network. Jio has has filed 68 patents for the path-breaking innovatoins from its Navi Mumbai Campus.

Jio led the Massive 4G network investments due to data explosion triggered by rapid shift in consumer behaviour from voice to entertainment. Jio is focused on building a platform, with an all IP 4G network, digital services/content, FTTH and enterprise services being key pillars. It continues to incur capex in improving its already

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Reliance Jio 4G gaining share from ALL operators

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The industry revenue figures for the Jun-17 quarter recently released show headline improvement in market share for incumbents – but that is not representative of customer wallet as Jio has not reported revenues.

While on a Gross Revenue basis, 35-45% of Jio’s market share gains has come from top-3, the improving traffic mix for Jio means ~60% of market share gains on AGR level are from top 3. We believe Airtel has lost at least 80-200 bp market share since Jio’s launch, while Vodafone+Idea have lost 160-240 bp.

Jio is yet to report revenues from the telecom business, and we believe the TRAI reporting primarily captures only the interconnect payments and

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Jio VoLTE Basic Feature Phones for Rural India with 2G Coverage

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Reliance Jio was able to acquire 800MHz spectrum in 13 of India’s 22 circles. It is yet to orient this network for rural coverage. The company also signed spectrum sharing and spectrum trading agreements with Reliance Communications to complete pan-India 800MHz spectrum footprint. Jio is awaiting clearance from the Competition Commission of India.

Jio plans to roll out 4G VoLTE-enabled feature phones at Rs 999- 1,800. Insiders report indicate the following about Jio’s 4G feature phones. Jio is looking to launch two variants under the LYF brand. One with a Qualcomm 205 chip and another with Spreadtrum chip. The phone could have the following specifications – 2.4 inch display, 2 MP front and rear camera, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. It could have

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Jio’s 4G Subscriber Addition Done – Incumbents Fight Back

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Reliance Jio’s net active customer addition slowed down further in April to 0.4m compared to 4.1m in March. This number has been slowing every month since December (13.7m net adds) and indicates to us that majority of customers with 4G devices who wanted to try Jio services are already using Jio and incrementally the customer additions will depend on increase in VOLTE device penetration.

While Jio started charging in April, it had not deactivated the non-paying customers in April and thus some of its subscribers are likely to have

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Reliance Jio – 72 Million Subscribers – Captures 55% of 4G LTE Market

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Jio’s announcement of 72 mn Prime membership sign-ups were above our expected 35 Mn. The bigger surprise, however, was Jio’s decision to extend free services by another three months despite now having 72 mn subs who paid `99 one-time charge to express their willingness to pay for Jio’s services from April 1, 2017. Assuming around Rs 250 as likely ARPU from these 72 mn subs, Jio has essentially decided to leave nearly USD800 mn ( RS 54 bn) in revenues on the table.

Jio’s free service offerings, since Sep 2016, get another 3-month extension with a slight twist. The fresh three months’ worth of complimentary

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20% Jio Subscribers Opt for Prime Membership

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Reliance Jio Infocomm has enrolled customers on its Jio Prime scheme which requires them to do a one-time recharge of Rs99. Jio Prime allow consumers to opt for one of the following subscription plans (validity is 28 days) after 1 April 2017: (a) Rs149, which offers unlimited voice calls and 2GB of data, and (b) Rs303, which offers unlimited voice and 1GB of data per day and higher price points with more data allowance.

Jio’s two channels have been aggressively promoted: (a) offline, through channels such as retail, specialised sales staff equipped with

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Jio Snatches MarketShare of Youth from Airtel

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Mukesh Ambani’s Jio is the main catalyst and the lead operator for the Mobile Data revolution in India. Telecom Analysts conducted a survey of 1000 Indian smartphone users was launched into the market shortly after Jio announced the Rs 303 pricing for Jio prime customers.

43% of the participants in the survey have a Jio SIM, and 25% of the total participants claim this is their primary SIM – in other words 58% of the Jio users are using Jio as their primary operator already (the remainder using it as a secondary SIM). This gives Jio a surprising second place position in term of primary SIM share in the market, second only to Airtel with 29% and above Vodafone and Idea with 19% and 9% respectively.

Jio users tend to be younger, skewing highly

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