Are consumers on RJio?s network, lapping up massive amounts of data, will find it hard to wind back all of it even as RJio starts charging, in the process helping incumbents ?
The argument goes like this,
Sure, RJio?s average monthly data consumption at 25GB is through the roof and is clearly grossly inflated but can it help raise Airtel's data consumption from the current 1GB/month/sub to say, 2GB/month/sub especially if RJio extends its free offer and builds the habit of increasing data consumption?
So, RJio extending the free offer may well change consumer behavior, ironically helping the incumbents rather than hurting them. What?s more, by extending the free offers for a longer period, RJio may help increase the odds of such a consumer behavior change. lso,
now that incumbents have sufficient spectrum (post Oct-16 auctions) for their foreseeable data needs, they might not need to incur more spectrum capex as consumers shift their data consumption to a higher plane.
From what we understand, there is no precedent of a new entrant with deep pockets in any other market having offered free
services on a near-comparable scale and for as long as RJio is doing. So, this would be a first and thus, arriving at definitive views to such a possible occurrence in India is hard.
