Indian-bred Reliance Industries destroyed the competitors when it launched its commercial 4G services in India. The company set a target of 100 million customers and even crossed 70 million by December-end last year.
Now, according to reports by PTI and IANS, Reliance Jio has crossed 100 million subscribers, which is factually wrong. Trak.in spoke to a Jio representative, who confirmed that Jio is yet to cross 100 million mark and reports in this regards are wrong.
These reports originated based on the statement made by Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries(RIL) while speaking at Nasscom India Leadership Forum 2017. He said, “When we started Jio we set a target of 100 million customers in shortest time. Even we didn’t imagine we will do it in months. Aadhaar enabled us to acquire a million customers a day, which is unheard of in the industry.”
This statement was misinterpreted to show that Jio has achieved 100 million subscribers.
Having said that, we can safely assume that Jio is very close to that number. If we assume (based on their performance in previous months) that they are adding around 15-18 million subscribers every month, they should be around 87 to 90 million by end of January. In our view, they will reach this number by last week of February.
During his talk, Mukesh Ambani also went on to say that data is now the new fuel for everyone, and as the world moves ahead at a fast pace, data is needed to keep up with it. He also acknowledges the vast diversity and potential India has and is trying to set a stage for these.
The Happy New Year offer from Reliance Jio has been extended till 31st March 2017, which means free 4G(capped at 1GB per day per user), free voice calls and text messages around India for another one a half months.
Other major telcos like Airtel and Vodafone has regularly voiced their concerns over breach of laws in offering free data to the customers, but Jio has been quick enough to respond to such statements with proper facts.
Jio captures 23% market share
According to a report by Truecaller, Reliance Jio stands at above 23% of market share in India. This has also led to Jio becoming the primary SIM for most users in India, at 42%, while Airtel is at 17.54%, Vodafone at 12.26% and Idea at 11.50%.
The report also mentions that Jio is also leading in data consumption, with a Jio-user logging 6.54GB on average compared to 1.28GB on Airtel, 1.29GB on Vodafone and 1.32GB on Idea.
This shows that Reliance Jio has become one of the most sought-after telco that has spread in India like a wildfire, despite resistance from the leading telcos and TRAI. While the services are not top-notch, the penetration in smaller towns and villages is excellent, clubbed with free offers till March 2017 making it even more attractive.
