Bharti Airtel is planning to take on Jio by launching Airtel 4G VoLTE services. Airtel is working on VoLTE services to improve voice quality and will roll out VoLTE services by March 2018. Airtel is also working with phone makers to launch low-cost budget 4G phones that will attract new users.
Decrease in profit of Airtel
In the last week on Friday Reliance Jio 4G announced its budget featured phone Jio Phone. Jio Phone from Reliance Jio is a 4G phone and the price of Jio Phone is Rs.1500. But this amount is refundable after 3 years. So, in Other words, Jio phone price is Rs.0.
Airtel has no other options left to counter Jio 4G rather than to partner with phone makers to launch budget friendly 4G phones. Until now there is no other 4G phone available in the market under the price of Rs.2000. According to the announcement of Airtel on Tuesday Airtel announced that its net profit declined to Rs.367 crore from April to June. In last year for the same period, Airtel net profit was Rs.1,462 crore. This declination in the profit of the company was caused by the plans and launch of Jio 4G.
Price War between and Airtel & Jio 4G
Airtel continues to launch similar plans matching with Jio Plans but not able to attract new users. Although the plans are similar to Jio 4G plans, Airtel doesn’t deliver everything in Free. Like in Jio 4G plan everything is free – No limit of calling, No roaming charges & No daily data limit. But in the plan of Airtel, there is a limit of calling like daily and weekly. You can not use data after the 1GB daily limit in Airtel. Incoming Roaming is free in Airtel on plan but outgoing is not free. Airtel Plan 399 is similar to Jio 4G plan 399. Earlier Plan 399 of Airtel gives 70 days validity with 70GB data but now the validity of plan is changed to 84 days.
Impact of Jio 4G on 2G and 3G Network
When Jio was launched in last year, it is only for LYF phone users, then it is shifted to all 4G phones. The cost of the 4G phone starts from Rs.2500. But now after the launch of Jio Phone which is priced at Rs.1500, it is expected that 2G and 3G phone era will end soon. Who will buy a 3G phone when you can buy a 4G phone in just Rs.1500 and that too refundable after 3 years.
Source – livemint