The Trai subscription data released for September 2020 revealed that the monthly new user addition of Reliance Jio has slowed down completely. Trai stated that Bharti Airtel added more than twofold new subscribers than Reliance Jio. Market research firm ICICI Securities predicts that Jio will now accelerate the launch of its low-cost 4G Android smartphone. For the unaware, the Mukesh Ambani-led telco is planning to launch cheap Android phones for less than Rs 5,000 in partnership with Google. The search giant is said to take care of the software side of things, whereas Jio will look after the hardware. While nothing is known about the specifications of these upcoming phones from Jio, analysts are now predicting that the telco will hasten the launch due to slowed subscriber additions.
Jio 4G Android Phones Already Tipped to Launch in Q1 2021
Back in September, a report added that the low-cost 4G phones from Jio and Google would debut in December. However, that isn't happening as the telco is now said to launch them in Q1 2021. As part of the partnership, both Jio and Google are looking to develop affordable 4G smartphones and even 5G smartphones. The launch is also said to be delayed to Q1 2021 due to ongoing supply chain issues.
Reliance Jio managed to add just 1.5 million new subscribers way below that of Airtel's 3.6 million new additions in September. Jio's active subscriber base percentage is also way lower than that of Bharti Airtel, which is also becoming a worrying factor for the telco.
When it reached the 100 million subscriber base mark in just five months, Jio revealed its intentions of grabbing 500 million subscribers and becoming leading telecom operator at the earliest. It became the leading operator last month, however, its goal of reaching 500 million userbase is now facing hurdles.
The launch of cheap Android 4G phones will likely improve the subscriber additions of Jio, however, we are again not sure of the exact launch date. Jio might announce the phones at the end of December 2020 and bring them to the market sometime in February 2021 or March 2021.
