Reliance Jio Flags Off The Data Plan War

The Voice business is almost saturated.Data and content are the future. Jio has opened the fight for that space.

- Vandana

This used to happen on Flipkart's annual sale. You click on a product, and, damn... it is out of stock. The customer frenzy for Reliance Jio connections is similar, said Shrikanta Das, tech enthusiast and assistant manager at an FMCG company. He spent three hours in a queue outside a Reliance Digital Express outlet only to be told that SIMs were out of stock. "I was told that I can get one only by October 15," he said. Das has a dual SIM phone and wants to use Jio specifically for data. No doubt, the freebies are pulling the price-sensitive Indian customer to Jio. 

"Jio is turning out to be a game changer. Existing operators were expecting it and, therefore, had started focusing on 4G. But Jio's pricing is bound to create a disruption in the market," says Salil Garg, director (corporate), India Ratings & Research.

Experts feel that the voice segment in the telecom industry is saturated and future growth lies in data. While existing operators' networks were built for voice and are now being upgraded to support data, the Jio network was built for high-speed data, and will support high quality voice service.

Reliance has invested ₹1.5 lakh crore in Jio. Its huge fibre optic cable network—three lakh circuit kilometres—can also be used for 5G and 6G. "One of the advantages with Reliance is that their technology is more modern. Existing companies in the sector do not even have a consistent 4G network," said Garg.