Idea Cellular recently increased benefits on data packs for its prepaid customers resulting upto 67% fall in its mobile internet rates. Similarly, Airtel increased data benefits on some of its prepaid data recharge packs (for e.g., the Rs 655 4G/3G monthly recharge pack will now offer 5 GB data vs. 3 GB earlier, an increase of 67%). With an increase in benefits, usage per subscriber will increase, but data ARPUs will not decline as customer spends will remain unchanged. Increase in benefits will help to improve subscriber penetration and data revenue growth.
Reliance JIO is nearing its commercial launch with optimisation in final stages across 18 circles. In the remaining four circles, integration in the 850MHz band and testing will take another 6-8 weeks. Test usage is strong with 26GB data (per month) consumed per user and 355 MOU. We believe Reliance JIO?s launch will disrupt existing data tariffs (30% already factored in) but incumbents are well placed to protect market share
