jio-vs-airtel-4g-pricing

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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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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Will TRAI Go Neutral on Predatory Pricing Tariff War by Jio ?

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The Indian Telecom Regulator – TRAI will decide on issue of predatory pricing in the next few weeks. In response to the consultation paper floated by the regulator in this regard, incumbent telcos (Airtel and Idea) have asked for following considerations – (a) Investments in 2G and 3G technologies cannot be ignored under the logic of obsolescence (b) asked for treating 4G/3G/2G services as a separate class of service. Additionally asked to treat wireline and wireless as separate services. (c) Not allow pricing below interconnect charges (IUC) and IUC should be computed on full costs.

Reliance Jio Infocomm is not in favour of

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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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Jio Kills Cash Registers of Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Lobby

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Jio’s business case, at some level, needs the support of an industry size that is materially larger than what it is today. Jio has a reasonable business case in a market where the other incumbents Airtel, Vodafone and Idea – A-Vo-Id lobby has one.

Jio is well funded by its parent and its discounting model is hurting the A-Vo-Id Lobby and it can potentially drag the industry size down to such low levels in the near term that raising it to the needed for a reasonable business case levels within a reasonable time frame may become near impossible.

In the Worst Case a 60%+ yoy decline in India wireless EBITDA levels of the industry (ex-Jio) in FY2018 to under Rs 200 bn levels. For an industry

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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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Demonetization + Jio to impact Airtel, Vodafone Idea

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jio-impact-on-airtel-vodafone-ideaDespite some respite from being allowed to accept old Rs 500 / 1,000 notes for a brief period, the two big events, i.e. demonetization and full quarter of Jio’s free services, are likely to result in a sharp sequential revenue decline. Pressure from Jio’s free launch offers is likely to be felt on three fronts – data volumes (as industry’s paid volumes take an expected knock), data pricing (as the incumbents try to hold on to data volumes) and voice pricing (initial impact of bundled offerings in line with Jio’s announced pricing construct + step-up in aggression on pure voice plans)

Jio’s free offers have resulted in a sharp

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