Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel will further benefit from the rise in data usage that the 5G launch in India would bring. 5G launch is not far away as Jio had declared that it would bring 5G services to four Indian cities by October and the same stance is of Airtel. Both telcos have a majority of the market share in terms of revenues and subscribers. Vodafone Idea's 5G expansion plans would be very much dependent on its ability to raise funds from external investors, which looks hard until the time government claims its equity in the company.
Jio and Airtel are already expected to grow at the expense of Vi's inability to compete head-on because of a lack of funds. In addition to this, the top two telcos will further benefit as average data usage by each of their 5G subscribers go up. As per CLSA, the average revenue per user (ARPU) of the Chinese telcos went up by 10%, driven by higher data usage. This is likely going to be the case for the Indian telcos as well. With time, more consumers would find relevant use cases for 5G networks in India and subscribe to 5G plans which would increase their data consumption.
Jio and Airtel ARPU to Surpass Rs 200 Levels with 5G Launch
Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel's ARPU is already near Rs 200 levels. With the 5G launch and another round of tariff hikes later in the year for 4G plans, both telcos will easily be able to surpass the Rs 200 ARPU figure. Jio has already announced its 5G FWA product, namely JioAirFiber and Jio Cloud PC, which consumers and small businesses can easily leverage to improve their digital experience.
JioAirFiber looks like a very promising product and a great alternative to fixed-line fiber broadband connections. More and more Indian consumers are purchasing 5G devices which means that the telcos have a ready market this time to start monetising early and get a return on their investment.
