Reliance Jio is the most economical operator in India when it comes to 28 days and 84 days prepaid plans segment. The telco offers discounts between 7% to 20% on its 28 days and 84 days plans when compared with its competitors Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. For the same reason, Reliance Jio has added millions of more customers than Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi). Much recently, both Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel discontinued their entry-level prepaid plan of Rs 49. Users of both the telcos on this plan will now have to spend at least 60% more for the new base Rs 79 prepaid plan.
Risk of Reliance Jio Adding Rs 49 Users of Airtel, Vodafone Idea Very Less
CLSA, in a note, said that the risk of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea losing their Rs 49 subscribers to Reliance Jio is very less. This is because Jio offers users a Rs 75 base plan which is very close to the Rs 79 price point that now Airtel and Vi are offering to their users as a base plan. Further, the Rs 75 plan from Reliance Jio is only for the JioPhone users. Thus users might just spend a little more and get the Rs 79 plan instead of purchasing the JioPhone.
As per CLSA, Vodafone Idea is going to benefit from the removal of the Rs 49 plan. This is because its base plan users will now have to pay Rs 79 instead of Rs 49. CLSA said that even though the move might cost Vodafone Idea around 10 million users, the telco will still see a rise in revenues and EBITDA by 5% to 10%.
Bharti Airtel is expected to garner some of the Rs 49 plan users from Vodafone Idea since users might not want to spend more on Vodafone Idea’s network because of its deteriorating image and opt for Airtels’ services. This might result in higher subscriber additions for Airtel.
