Reliance Jio Planning 5G Network; Data Costs Down By 90 Percent!
The Indian telecom sector is going through one of the worst phrases ever, but Reliance Jio is in no mood to stop.
Recently India’s largest telecom operator Airtel has reported a loss of Rs 480 crore (before taxes) for the first time in their operation of fifteen years. On the other hand, the Aditya Birla led Idea has reported a loss of Rs 1080 crore before interest and tax after adjusting for exceptional items.
The Indian telecom sector is going through one of the worst phrases ever, but Reliance Jio is in no mood to stop. Already the Mukesh-Ambani-led Jio has disrupted the market with unlimited voice plans bundled with free high-speed 4G data. The data prices have come down by a steep 90 per cent with the industry staggering from one challenge to the next.
Contents
Jio 5G Network: The Next Target
Reliance Jio currently has one of the largest 4G networks in the country. The company has been able to build the largest next-generation all-IP data network. Jio uses the latest 4G LTE and VoLTE technology and is now all set to deploy the next-gen 5G technology and beyond.
The company currently has a total spectrum footprint of 1,108 MHz across three spectrum bands. It has bands presently ranging around 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz band in 22 circles. All the circles have an average life of over 15 years.
Losses Deepen
As Reliance Jio is locking their horns to cover 99 per cent of the whole population of the country by the end of the current fiscal, the worries remain countless. The incumbents are even struggling to remain operational under the current circumstances.
The company has now started to target the post-paid and international segments, which will add to further losses. The companies are not even able to compete against each other as the pricing pressure remains vulnerable to all market threats.
Jio is now targeting to cover the rest of the segments deepening into the current operational areas to achieve 99 per cent of the country’s population.
The Growing Numbers
Reliance Jio has earned a net profit of Rs 723 crore. The company stands at a turnover of Rs 23,714 crore in the current year of its commercial operations. The company now has 186.6 million subscribers at the end of March 2018.
An average Jio subscriber consumes 9.7 GB 4G data, 716 minutes of voice calls, and 13.8 hours of video per month. The network has an average download speed of 17.9 Mbps.
Declining Data & Call Rates
The voice call costs have seen a sharp drop by 58 per cent. Also, the data rates have come down drastically by 90 per cent with the industry struggling badly to stay afloat.
The costs have experienced a massive transformation in last 1.5 years since Jio entered the market.
While the outlook for the telecom industry looks bleak, Jio is going all out to enhance their network and subscriber base.
