Billionaire Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio (R-Jio), a Rs 1.5 lakh crore telecom venture has garnered over 100 million consumers in 170 days, faster than Facebook, WhatsApp and Skype, making it third largest telco firm after Bharti Airtel, (Vodafone and Idea Cellular combine post merger) and ahead of Reliance Communications, Tata Communications and state-owned BSNL.
Announcing the 100 million mark, Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani in a speech broadcast live on Reliance Industries’ social media accounts, said that the company will start charging tariff for its services from April 1, but will offer sharp discounts to the existing 100 million subscribers and those who sign up by March 31.
“Jio added seven customers every second, a record for India and Indians. This is unprecedented level of acceptance for any tech company anywhere in the world,” said Mr. Ambani, the richest Indian adding that R-Jio will continue offering free domestic voice calls, free roaming, no blackout days and no hidden charges.
R-Jio existing subscribers and those who joins till March 31 may join ‘Jio Prime Membership’ with one time enrolment fee of Rs 99 and Rs 303 per month to get the unlimited benefits of the existing Jio Happy New Offer for another full year or till 31 March 2018.
Taking on competition heads-on Mr. Ambani not only promised to match all data plans of every other Indian competitor but committed to offer 20% more data on similar plans from competitors.
"Jio is instituting a comprehensive process of monitoring all publicly announced plans from all operators, across the country on a regular basis. And we will not only match the highest selling tariffs of each of the other leading Indian telecom operators but we will provide 20% more data in each of these plans. This is our promise of everyday more value to Jio customers. You no longer have to worry if you are getting the best value with Jio," said Mr. Ambani.
RIL shares on BSE closed up 1.36% at Rs 1088.25 in a firm Mumbai market on Tuesday, valuing the company at Rs 3,53,013 crore while Sunil Bharti Mittal led Bharti Airtel shares closed down 3.38% at Rs 362.95.
"Jio price points are very competitive and its now to be seen how the competition takes it. There is going to be bloodbath in the telecom industry. Airtel shares falling is a clear indication," Paras Bothra, president equities at Aashika Stock Broking told The Hindu.
