Jio's six-month free service offer which ends on March 31st [Happy New Year Offer], Jio may continue to offer free data/voice services at a nominal rate (Rs 100) for another three months. However, new tier of pricing will also come to test elasticity.
Jio currently has 75 mn subscribers and is well placed to cross 100 mn subs by March-end at a run-rate of 0.65 mn subs/day. The continued free service at a nominal rate may prevent a sharp drop in subscriber number of Jio. Furthermore Jio could be in a position to have 100 mn paying customers (although at a lower than earlier estimated rate) by June-end before it starts commercially charging fully.
All the Jio Plans will have - Unlimited Voice Calling / Roaming + - Unlimited SMS but subject to FUP as per TRAI
Rs 100 Jio 4G Data Plan
- 500MB of 4G Data / Day
Rs 200 Jio Unlimited Calling / 4G Data Plan
- 1GB of 4G Mobile Data
Thus higher the price of the plan, higher will be the data benefits and this goes on in an incremental fashion.
This will impact other telco operators like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea's ability to gain traction as free service may continue at a nominal rate. While we find Bharti Airtel relatively better positioned, we find the smaller telcos potentially pushed towards exit or consolidation.
