On Monday, Reliance Jio announced the new broadband back-up plan, which will let users get a new broadband connection for just Rs 198 per month. According to a new note from ICICI Securities, the move is going to disrupt the pay-TV market, which won't be able to match the attractive proposition that Jio is offering. It would ensure that Jio's FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) services witnesses an acceleration in subscriber base. Further, content bundling would aid the adoption of the converged digital ecosystem that can open up new revenue opportunities in the future.
The only thing to consider here is that the customer would have to go for a new connection for at least five months. So the customer will have to pay Rs 990 for the usage charge, against which he/she will get unlimited data and 10 Mbps of speed. On top of this, there's a Rs 500 charge for the installation of the connection. Jio has only kept the offer for new customers or new connections to ensure that there's no downgrading from existing customers.
Read More - Jio Announces JioFiber Broadband Back-Up Plan at Just Rs 198
Customers can also pay Rs 100 or Rs 200 additionally to get access to several OTT (over-the-top) apps. This also has to be paid for five months altogether. But the total cost of the services, even with the additional Rs 200 per month payment for OTT, would not cross a very significant threshold of Rs 2500. This keeps the price of the services very much similar to what customers have to pay for the pay-TV services.
Currently, India has about 30 million broadband customers, while there are 130 million pay-TV subscribers. This new offering from Reliance Jio is going to push the migration of pay TV subscribers towards broadband. This new plan from Jio is going to make a huge difference because the DTH (direct-to-home) bills are going up because of NTO 3.0.
ICICI Securities also said that Bharti Airtel would have to launch competing services as this move from Jio is likely going to impact its DTH subscriber base. But at the same time, Bharti's FTTH business will largely remain unaffected.
