>>"[...] Indians will be able to use Jio for free until the end of 2016, and pay as little as 149 rupees ($2.25) a month for data after that."
For additional context, Jio data rates on a $/GB basis are around one-fifth the price of competing data rates in India, and voice will evidently remain free nationwide, without roaming charges, even after the promotion period ends.[1]
This seems like a game changer, provided Jio can take enough market share and start to turn a profit on their 4G network with the subsidized smartphones and free voice calling.
Free voice calling scares Reliance's competitors because voice still constitutes over 60% of average revenue per user (example: in early 2016 voice was over 70%+ of Bharti Airtel's ARPU[2]). If Jio is successful, voice ARPU should drop like a rock for everybody else. The same will happen with Reliance too, but at least they're dictating the pace and degree of change on their own terms.
For additional context, Jio data rates on a $/GB basis are around one-fifth the price of competing data rates in India, and voice will evidently remain free nationwide, without roaming charges, even after the promotion period ends.[1]
This seems like a game changer, provided Jio can take enough market share and start to turn a profit on their 4G network with the subsidized smartphones and free voice calling.
Free voice calling scares Reliance's competitors because voice still constitutes over 60% of average revenue per user (example: in early 2016 voice was over 70%+ of Bharti Airtel's ARPU[2]). If Jio is successful, voice ARPU should drop like a rock for everybody else. The same will happen with Reliance too, but at least they're dictating the pace and degree of change on their own terms.
[1] http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-techno...
[2] http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/bharti-ai...