How Jio has changed the market for the better

The war within India’s telecom industry is intensifying as expected.

When Jio opened its services to the public in September 2016, the existing telecom companies didn’t respond immediately. For three months, the Jio services were part of a trial, so they wanted to wait and watch. The commercial services were supposed to start from January.

Now, the jury is still out on the goodness of Jio and how it’s going to impact companies like Airtel and Vodafone. It’s unclear which company provides the best telecom services. The Jio network seems fast when it works, but Airtel and Vodafone are more reliable. But one thing is clear — in this war between Jio and the others, most notably Airtel, the users are winning.

In a way, Jio has already changed the market for the better. When it was introduced, a key idea it came with was simplified billing, and STD and ISD calls were free with the data package. The idea was — subscribe to a data plan and pay a certain amount of money every month. There were no hidden charges, roaming fee or call charges per second or minute.

This January, almost all telecom operators are offering plans that seem as simple as those proposed by Jio. Both Airtel and Vodafone now have pre-paid and postpaid plans that give subscribers free STD and local calls, along with free messages (Rs 3,000 per month in most cases). But a more significant outcome for consumers is the lowered cost of wireless data.

When Jio was launched, it promised data that will be as cheap as Rs 50 per GB. Although the reality is a bit nuanced, Jio does offer the cheapest wireless data rates in India. But in the last one month, Airtel and others have reduced data prices by over 50 per cent, or rather doubled the amount of data consumers can use.

Given the sad state of wired connectivity in India, the price for wireless data is too high. But just the way call rates went down in the last decade when telecom companies fought to get more consumers, this time, data prices are reducing. And for consumers, it’s a win-win situation.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

Also read: Worried telcos are taking on Jio – with freebies

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