It has been already one year since Reliance Jio started offering its services to general public. On September 5, 2017, Reliance Jio Infocomm, led by Mukesh Ambani opened the 4G services to the public in India. And after one year, the same person applauds his employees for breaking so many records and even revealed that the Jio subscriber base has reached 130 million in just one year.
The new entrant broke several records. Earlier this year, it became the fastest operator to bag 100 million subscribers in just 170 days, and now, it became the quickest to reach 130 million mark. "In this past one year, we have broken several records, both in India and globally. But what gives me the biggest personal satisfaction is to have broken the myth that India is not ready to adopt advanced technology," Ambani said in his letter to Jio employees.
This was the ultimate goal of Reliance Jio and Mukesh Ambani. His goal was to achieve 100 million subscribers in just 100 days, but it took them 172 days, thanks to the New Year Offer which offered just 1GB of data per day and also resulted in slow down of subscriber addition.
Appreciating effort of the employees, Ambani said, "the way you laid out the infrastructure and technology and most importantly, the way you worked tirelessly to have more than hundred and thirty million satisfied customers, making Jio a truly customer-obsessed organisation".
However, in recent times, the subscriber base of Reliance Jio slowed down drastically, especially after becoming a paid service. As of June 2017, Jio had 123.36 million subscribers according to Trai's data. Recently, it was also said that India's mobile data consumption rose to 150 crore GB per month from 20 crore GB with Jio customers alone consuming 125 crore GB data per month. This is insane by any standards. Jio has changed the landscape of the Indian telecom industry and how global markets see India.
Reliance Jio also made the tariffs come down by a huge margin. A year ago, we used to pay Rs. 255 for 1GB of 4G data for operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, and many other telecom operators. However, after Jio's entry, incumbent operators felt the pressure and reduced the tariff plans. Now, we're getting 1GB data per day for the same amount and that too with more validity.
"Together we have created the largest end-to-end all -IP 4G network in the world...India has adopted Jio as its own. This is also reflected in the gigantic spurt in data consumption and customer numbers on our network," Ambani said.
Still, several customers in India claim that Reliance Jio's LTE speeds are pathetic, but Trai's website suggests that Jio is the fast LTE network in the country.
Reliance Jio already began its second round of disruption with the JioPhone. The company is hoping to make India, a Digital country by reaching out 500 million users across the country in rural areas. The company is aiming to sell 5 million JioPhones every week starting from September 21.
