coursteySep 06 2016 : The Times of India (Ahmedabad)
Airtel, Voda, Idea plan tariff cuts, freebies to counter Jio
Pankaj Doval
Mumbai:
To Contain Any Erosion In High-Value Customer Base
Mobile subscribers can look forward to better times as companies like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are planning tariff cuts, discounts, freebies and value additions to match the onslaught of Reliance Jio, which began commercial operations on Monday , offering lifetime-free voice calling, zero roaming tariffs and zerocost for unlimited data downloads till the end of this year.
Top industry sources said incumbent operators are planning to match up the initial frenzy for Jio's services. “It's a competitive industry , and (Jio's) tariffs will need to be countered,“ an official with one of the top telcos told TOI. “We will make the counter moves very soon,“ the official added, requesting anonymity .
Most of the officials pointed out that new measures on tariffs and value additions will come on top of the recent price cuts and additional benefits that have been offered by all the major companies -Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. “We have been constantly adding value to the plans, and now the idea is to contain any potential movement in our high-value lucrative customer base,“ an official said.
Immediate benefits are being offered to customers who are putting in requests for porting out. For example, Airtel is offering at least 20% lower tariff for post-paid customers in the Rs 999 package, apart from nearly 33% enhanced data value.This is being offered under a new scheme. Vodafone is also revising tariffs on its plans which are above Rs 1,499.
While Airtel referred to Jio's plans as a “marketing gimmick“, Vodafone said the new company will provide limited coverage on highways and rural areas. In internal presenta tions being prepared by Airtel and Vodafone, seen by TOI, the two companies are criticising the 4G-only network of Jio, which, they are claiming, gives only “limited coverage“ as it runs on data services.
“Absence of 4G coverage will lead to call drop, which is poor network coverage,“ Airtel's presentation said, adding that subscribers could fall back on 2G3G coverage on Airtel's network during such situation.
Company officials did not confirm the presentations.
However, customers of Reliance Jio are facing connectivity problems while making calls to other networks or receiving, and the company is blaming rival operators for the situation, alleging that they are not providing adequate points of interconnect to allow completion of calls. While actual number of users on Jio's network could not be verified, it is believed that the company has got around 3 million users so far.