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Tag: Jio

  • Airtel beats Jio by active customer adds in March

    Airtel beats Jio by active customer adds in March

    India’s largest operator Bharti Airtel beat out disruptive new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm in April in terms of active subscriber additions for the first time since Jio launched services last September.

    Analysis from Goldman Sachs finding that Airtel added 2.6 million active subscribers for the month, according to India’s voice location register. This compares to just 400,000 for Jio.

    Data subscriber additions are also starting to increase for Airtel now that Jio is starting to charge for data, and the analysts believe that Jio could continue to face challenges with subscriber growth in the future – Jio’s active VLR additions have now been decelerating for four straight months.

    Jio’s active subscribers as a percentage of total subscribers have also been in decline, falling to only 71% in April, compared to nearly 98% for the market’s top three operators Airtel,  Voafone India and Idea Cellular.

    But the report cites sources close to Jio as stating that the company doesn’t give much significance to VLR figures and stating that its total base of paid customers actually increased by around 8 million during April to over 80 million.

  • Jio has India’s fastest average download speeds

    Jio has India’s fastest average download speeds

    India’s newest mobile operator Reliance Jio Infocomm had the fastest average download speeds  during March by a wide margin, according to the latest figures by regulator Trai.

    Jio recorded an average download speed of 16.48Mbps for the quarter, roughly double that of rivals Idea Cellular (8.33Mbps) and Bharti Airtel (7.66Mbps).

    As a 4G-only operator Jio has an inherent advantage in terms of average download speeds.

    Vodafone meanwhile recorded average download speeds of 5.66Mbps, compared to 2.64Mbps for Reliance Communication, 2.52Mbps for Tata DoCoMo, 2.26Mpbs for BSNL and 2.01Mbps for Aircel, Trai’s figures indicate.

    But the findings of the debut report from wireless coverage mapping company OpenSignal into the state of the Indian mobile market appear to contradict the official figures.

    OpenSignal’s analysis indicates that Airtel tops the rankings in terms of average 4G, 3G and overall speeds. The company measured Airtel’s average LTE download speed of 11.5Mbps, and said that both Vodafone and Idea have faster average speeds than Jio, which scored a mere 3.92Mbps.

    But Jio topped the rankings in terms of LTE availability, finding that testers on Jio’s network were able to find a 4G signal 91.6% of the time. No other Indian operator scored higher than 60%.

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  • Now, Reliance Jio plan subscribers to get 15% discount on AirAsia tickets

    Now, Reliance Jio plan subscribers to get 15% discount on AirAsia tickets

    More than 72 million subscribers of Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) can avail a discount of 15% on their domestic and international travel on Air Asia. Sources said Jio subscribers can avail this discount using the Air Asia’s mobile app for the travel period starting June 20, 2017 till September 30, 2017.

    Air Asia is working on the modalities and will come out with the offer in the next 2-3 days, they added. Air Asia India had earlier during the day tweeted the offer, but had then deleted it. Market analysts said that the scheme fits into Jio’s strategy of targeting the high Arpu (Average revenue per user) customers of its rivals as well as to retain its own high-end users by offering such incentives.

    While launching Jio on September 1, 2016, RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani had indicated that the platinum customers of Jio will also be offered a series of “specialized, white-glove services such as concierge services and video call centers”.

    Jio sources said that the company is planning to come out with similar offers related to travel and hospitality for its subscribers.

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  • Jio accuses rivals of “unfair and deceptive” practices

    Jio accuses rivals of “unfair and deceptive” practices

    India’s Reliance Jio Infocomm has called on the market’s telecoms regulator to penalize incumbent operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular for allegedly violating regulations covering mobile plans in an attempt to prevent more customers from porting to the new operator.

    Reliance Jio has accused the operators of using “unfair and deceptive” methods to retain customers, including by offering custom retention offers for subscribers thinking of porting to Jio.

    Jio said these custom offers are being offered on a one-off basis to existing customers, and as such are not advertised publicly as required by the regulations.

    The operator has further argued that the custom offers violate regulatory norms limiting the number of prepaid and postpaid plans allowed to 25.

    Finally, Jio has accused the operators of providing “false and malicious” information regarding the quality of Jio’s network to customers via call center interactions.

    The operator is requesting that regulator Trai issue a ceast and desist order prohibiting the operators from continuing with the alleged actions.

    But Both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India strongly denied to the Press Trust of India any allegation that they are in violation of the regulations.

  • Trai cracks down on Jio’s free service offers

    Trai cracks down on Jio’s free service offers

    Indian telecoms regulator Trai has finally ordered an end to disruptive new operator Reliance Jio Infocomm’s practice of offering free services to customers as promotional exercises.

    The regulator has instructed Jio to withdraw its Summer Surprise offer, which would have entitled new customers to three months of free services upon making their first recharge payment of at least 303 rupees ($4.70).

    The regulator has declared that the offer does not fit with India’s regulatory framework covering promotions, which places limits on the duration that discounts can be offered.

    Jio has announced it will comply fully with the order, but that customers who have already signed up for the offer will remain eligible.

    Jio’s latest offer follows an initial promotion providing completely free services that had run for three months, and was subsequently expanded for a further three. This aggressive strategy helped the operator sign up over 100 million customers  in less than six months of commercial operation.

    Rival operators had objected to the offer extension, but Jio had insisted that the second offer represented an entirely new promotion and so did not violate the regulations limiting promotions. At the time, Trai sided with Jio, but this latest decision indicates that the regulator’s patience is wearing thin.

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  • Nokia, Ciena providing gear for Jio’s major 4G rollout

    Nokia, Ciena providing gear for Jio’s major 4G rollout

    Nokia and Ciena have both detailed their roles in providing equipment for disruptive Indian newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm’s greenfield pan-India 4G rollout.

    Reliance Jio finally launched LTE services for the public in September last year, and has signed on 100 million new users in just 170 days due to its aggressive strategy of initially offering all services for free.

    Nokia announced that its optical deployment for Jio covers over 90,000km across India, making it one of the biggest 100G deployments in the world.

    The vendor provided switches with 100G DWDM capabilities as well as generalized MPLS intelligence to support capacity management and restoration

    “In only 170 days, Jio has signed on 100 million new users. With growth rates of this magnitude we had to ensure we deployed the highest capacity, most resilient transport network to build out the 4G network,” Reliance Jio president Jyotindra Thacker commented.

    “Nokia’s next-generation DWDM portfolio provides the ability to scale easily as Jio continues to expand the network to reach the underserved areas of India with digital services in key areas such as communication, education, healthcare, payments and multi-media entertainment.”

    Ciena meanwhile deployed multi-terabit converged packet optical technology for Jio’s 4G network core, operating at speeds of up to 200Gbps.

    The Ciena packet optical platforms use Ciena’s WaveLogic coherent technology for the core network, which connects all major cities of India.

    • “With Ciena we are not only able to provide robust scalability to offer new levels of data consumption, which is already 8 to 10 times above market levels, but also a supreme level of confidence in our network’s reliability and level of service that stands out in our marketplace,” Thacker said.
    • “Ciena’s coherent technological offerings and proven control plane technology is helping to make us the fastest growing 4G network in the world.”
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  • India’s Jio introduces its first price plans

    India’s Jio introduces its first price plans

    Disruptive new Indian 4G operator Reliance Jio’s free services offer will soon be coming to an end, but the operator has announced an aggressive new pricing strategy in a bid to retain as many of its new customers as possible.

    Jio launched nationwide services in September last year, but made all services available for free as a promotional offer. The company subsequently extended this promotion until March 31.

    The aggressive marketing strategy has helped Jio sign up new customers at a record rate – the operator recently revealed it is nearing 100 million customers. But a number of these are expected to port out once the free services period comes to an and, due in part to the current patchy nature of Jio services.

    In an attempt to limit churn, Jio has introduced a new Prime offer that will take effect from April 1. Under this offer, customers will be able to pay a one-time 99 rupee ($1.48) fee for prime membership, and another 303 rupees a month for unlimited voice calls and 30GB of allocated data.

    Jio’s rivals, which have already been feeling the impact of the operator’s entry into the market and been pushed into making their offers more competitive, may find themselves needing to further cut prices or increase allocations in response.

    This could put even more pressure on a hotly-competitive telecoms market and accelerate the consolidation trend.

  • Jio extends free services offer to March 31

    Jio extends free services offer to March 31

    Disruptive Indian 4G operator Reliance Jio has extended its free services offer until March 31, and announced it has already achieved 52 million customers.

    The operator has announced a new “Happy New Year” offer involving the supply of free voice, data and Jio apps to both new and existing customers until March 31.

    Existing customers will automatically be signed up to the Happy New Year offer, without having to buy a new SIM.

    But the new offer comes with a daily fair-use limit of 1GB, with broadband speeds shaped if this is exceeded.

    According to the report, only 20% of users of the earlier Welcome Offer free services consumed over 1GB per day, and their heavy usage resulted in network congestion. The earlier offer had a fair-use limit of 4GB per day.

    The new offer has come under scrutiny from the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), which is investigating the deal to determine whether it falls afoul of regulatory limits on promotions.

    India only allows telecoms promotional offers to run for three months, but Jio has asserted that it is an entirely new campaign. The company has also argued that it would be unfair to charge customers while the operator is still dealing with congestion issues.

    Jio also revealed it had reached over 52 million customers in 83 days, and has been signing up  600,000 customers per day over this time. Jio soft-launched 4G services for its employees and those of its partners months before the launch to the public, so the company already had a subscriber base.

    This rate of growth makes Jio the fastest growing technology company in the world, according to parent company Reliance Industries’ owner Mukesh Ambani.

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  • India’s Jio fights with incumbents over PoIs

    India’s Jio fights with incumbents over PoIs

    India’s Reliance Jio Infocomm is in an ongoing battle with the nation’s three incumbent operators over interconnection capacity.

    Jio, a newcomer to the mobile scene, is accusing Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular of refusing to provide enough PoIs to handle the volume of calls between Jio customers and those of the incumbents.

    The operator said that as of mid-September, Airtel had provided just 651 operational E1s, Vodafone just 467 and Idea just 526. In the past 15 days, Airtel had provided one new E1 to Vodafone’s five and Idea’s three.

    Jio said based on industry practices, the operator estimates it requires an interconnection capacity of 4,000 to 5,000 E1s per operator. The shortfall is resulting in over 100 million call failures per day between Jio and the three incumbent operators combined.

    “The continued denial of requisite PoI’s is in clear violation of the License conditions and TRAI regulations on quality of service by the incumbent operators,” the company said.

    “The deliberate move to not provide sufficient interconnection capacity, as is apparent from the above numbers, is clearly aimed at hindering RJIL’s entry into the sector and is depriving Indian customers from enjoying superior HD voice services being offered by RJIL.”

    But in an interview with the Hindu Business Line, Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal has insisted  that the company has already provided 2,100 PoIs, and said the process is ongoing.

    He also downplayed the conflict with Jio, stating that the fight between the disruptive start-ups and the incumbents has already been de-escalated.

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  • Reliance in 1000-store telco deal

    Reliance in 1000-store telco deal

    India’s Reliance Industries is to build a network of 1000 stores, the consumer face of a new 4G mobile phone network.

    The new mobile phone network will be launched in December with 1000 stores branded ‘Jio Centers’. The network itself will be called Jio.

    The store network will sell Jio-branded mobile phones and be backed up by 500,000 licenced connectivity outlets and one million recharge outlets. These customer contact points will be operational by December, when the network – undergoing beta testing from next month – will boast 80 per cent coverage of India.

    The stores will also sell Samsung, Apple, Huawei and Xiaomi phones for connection to its network.

    “Reliance Digital would be a catalyst by making available entry level to ultra premium 4G LTE smartphones… in driving the device ecosystem in India for Jio,” the company said in a statement.

    Reliance Industries operates in a number of sectors, although its base is in energy and retailing. It is headed by Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest individual.

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