The Jio effect: Consumers have been the absolute winners
Two years since Reliance Jio launched its services on Sept 5, 2016, consumers have been the absolute winners, with tariffs hitting rock bottom (voice almost free), data consumption increasing multi-fold. But the price wars have meant that smaller telcos have exited the market and even big ones such as erstwhile no. 2 and 3 operators — Vodafone India and Idea Cellular — have had to merge to be competitive. ET takes a look at some fundamental changes in the sector since Jio’s launch…
- Mobile data consumption in the country up from 20 cr GB/month to nearly 370 cr GB/month
- Cost of data down to less than Rs 15/GB from at least Rs 250/GB
- India now no. 1 in data consumption compared with 155th before Jio launch
- No. of private telcos down to 3 Bharti Airtel, Voda Idea, Jio vs 8-9 per circle earlier
- Almost all smartphones now shipped are 4G-VoLTE enabled
- In 2 years, Jio has garnered over 215 m users at June end; avg data usage/subscriber/month is at 10.6 GB; avg voice usage/sub/month at 744 minute
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