When Will Jio Become India’s #1 Telecom Player? Have They Beaten Airtel Already?

As per research reports shared by leading financial institutions, Reliance Jio is all set to overtake Airtel, Vodafone-Idea to become India’s largest telecom player, as early as December-end, this year.

Will Adhaar-KYC issue pose a problem for Jio in this race?

Indian telecom is certainly experiencing some interesting twists now!

Jio Can Become India’s #1 Telco!

As per research notes released by Kotak Institutional Equities Research, Jio may have already become India’s 2nd biggest telecom operator by revenues, after Vodafone-Idea

By the time 2018 ends, they can become India’s largest telecom player, by beating Vodafone-Idea.

As per researchers at Kotak, Airtel is expected to report their revenues in the range of ?87-88 billion for the Q2 of this fiscal year.

Meanwhile Jio has already declared their revenues as  ?92.4 billion (which is net of interconnected revenues).

Now, in case prediction of Airtel’s revenues are true, then Jio has already beaten Airtel and become India’s 2nd largest telecom player after Vodafone-Idea.

If the merger hadn’t had happened, then Jio would have been #1 player by now.

The research notes said,  “If the current trends continue, Reliance Jio will likely become #1 on net revenues as early as 3QFY19E,”

But.. Aadhaar KYC Can Become An Issue?

No doubt Jio is fighting hard to maintain the momentum, and carry forward the growth.

However, some analysts are saying that Aadhaar-KYC issue can become an obstacle, albeit for a short phase.

After the Supreme Court ordered that all private companies must stop using Aadhaar as KYC tool, things have changed. Rumors of ‘inconvenience’ due to updating KYC have already been shared, and this can derail the momentum.

Talks are already on for an alternative to Aadhaar for KYC, which can include a mobile app, which can take real-time, geo-tagged images of the new users and offline methods as well.

Reliance Jio has already stated that they will keep on using Aadhaar for KYC, until they receive any notice from DoT. This means that as of now, Reliance Jio is unaffected due to the KYC issue.

Even if Aadhaar KYC is an issue, it will be a temporary one, and Govt. regulations will soon change to end this confusion.

We will keep you updated, as we receive more updates.