Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies

Entry of Reliance Jio in the telecom industry: a ripple in the ocean

Bikramjit Rishi, Archit Kacker, Shreya Gupta,
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Bikramjit Rishi, Archit Kacker, Shreya Gupta, (2018) "Entry of Reliance Jio in the telecom industry: a ripple in the ocean",
Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, Vol. 8 Issue: 3, pp.1-17, https://doi.org/10.1108/EEMCS-07-2017-0167
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 Entry of Reliance Jio in the telecom
industry: a ripple in the ocean
Bikramjit Rishi, Archit Kacker and Shreya Gupta

Introduction Bikramjit Rishi, Archit

Kacker, and Shreya
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The announcement made by Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman and Managing Director of Gupta are Associate
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), about the launch of Reliance Jio[1] at the company’s 41st Professors, all at the
Annual General Meeting (AGM) (Reliance Industries, 2017) in June 2015 sent shockwaves Institute of Management
across the telecom industry. Although many analysts were confident that Jio would be a Technology, Ghaziabad,
flop show, some predicted that the offerings provided by Reliance Jio, which included data India.
and voice services at nearly half the current prices, would quickly eat into the customer
base that big players such as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea had built over the years (The
Economic Times, 2017a).
Everyone, including the customers, competitors and the entire telecom sector, was keen to
know whether Reliance Jio would be able to make a dent or fizzle like a weak firecracker.
Was it time for the top players to be worried and pull their socks up or will it be an
inconsequential ripple in the ocean?
At the AGM on December 08, 2015, five months after the announcement of Reliance Jio, Mr
Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, the man behind Airtel, in an
interview with Business Insider said that Airtel is concerned about all kinds of competition
and will take it up very seriously, be it Idea, Vodafone or Jio (Business Insider, 2017). He
could not have been more right, as on March 2017, Reliance Jio was already making news
for all the right reasons. It has gained substantial customer base, something that other
companies took years to achieve.

Reliance Group: a brief history

Reliance Jio, a part of the Reliance group of industries as we know today, had started in a
very different sector in the twentieth century. Reliance was co-founded by Dhirubhai
Ambani and his second cousin Champaklal Damani in 1960s as Reliance Commercial
Corporation. In 1965, the partnership ended, and Dhirubhai decided to continue the
polyester business of the firm. In 1966, Reliance Textiles Industries Pvt. Ltd. began its
operations in Maharashtra. In 1975, the “Only Vimal” brand was introduced[2]. The
company held its IPO (Initial Public Offering) in 1977, and the issue was over-subscribed
by approximately seven times (NDTV.com, 2017). In 1985, the company expanded by
Disclaimer. This case is written
setting up a new plant in Maharashtra, and the name of the company was changed from solely for educational
Reliance Textiles Industries Pvt. Ltd. to Reliance Industries Ltd (The Economic Times, purposes and is not intended
to represent successful or
2017b). unsuccessful managerial
decision-making. The authors
In 1995, the company first entered the telecom sector through a joint venture with NYNEX may have disguised names;
financial and other
Corporation, which is a New York-based telecom company founded in 1984, and promoted recognizable information to
the formation of Reliance Telecom Private Limited in India. protect confidentiality.

DOI 10.1108/EEMCS-07-2017-0167 VOL. 8 NO. 3 2018, pp. 1-17, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2045-0621 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 1
 Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)
Mukesh Ambani, the eldest son of late Dhirubhai Ambani, is the current Chairman and
Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). RIL is an Indian conglomerate,
headquartered in Mumbai, India. As of February 2016, Reliance was the most profitable
company in India, outstripping Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS) and Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) (Money Control,
2017). RIL was one of the seven Indian companies that have made it to the Fortune Global
500 list. Among those seven, RIL occupied the top position among the private sector firms
with a rank of 215, followed by Tata Motors and Rajesh Exports (Fortune Global 500, 2017).
RIL has businesses in many areas such as Exploration and Production, Textiles, Global
Corporate Security (GCS), Telecom, Petroleum Refining & Marketing, Petrochemicals and
Retail.

Exploration and Production

Reliance is one of the largest Exploration and Production (E&P) players in India, having its
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presence both in the domestic and global market. Reliance began the E&P business by
entering into a 30 per cent partnership with British Gas and ONGC. This unincorporated
joint venture was operated in the Panna Mukta and mid and south Tapti blocks (RIL.com,
2017a). Besides these, their domestic portfolio comprises five oil and gas blocks in basins,
such as Cauvery Palar, Cambay Basin, etc., and methane block coal beds. The company
even started its operation overseas, as in Myanmar, Reliance acquired two offshore blocks.
Reliance also entered into three joint ventures with the Marcellus and Eagle Ford for the
production of oil and gas in India and for Shale Gas in the USA.

Petroleum refining and marketing

The Jamnagar refinery owned by Reliance Industries is the largest refinery in the world. It
was not just built in a record time but also the costs involved in building were low compared
to other refineries globally (RIL.com, 2017b). This refinery has been consistently winning
awards, including the prestigious “International Refiner of the Year” award in the year 2013.

Global Corporate Security

Global Corporate Security (GCS) functions started with the primary objective of ensuring
the safety and security of India’s largest private sector company. The security is provided
on land, air and water round the clock. GCS is supported by a team of security
professionals with military and police background. GCS operates worldwide and cover
approximately 2,200 sites in around 14 countries (RIL.com, 2017c).

Petrochemicals
The focus of Reliance’s Petrochemicals division has been on developing world-class
products, and thus making India the largest producer of polyester fiber in the world
(RIL.com, 2017d). The company also gives credit to the research and development
department and IT services for achieving such a mammoth feat.

Textiles
The textile division, like other divisions of Reliance, also has many achievements under its
belt. The textile division at Naroda, which is a manufacturing plant, has been recognized by
the World Bank (RIL.com, 2017e). The Company’s flagship brand Vimal is one of the oldest
and most trusted brands across India. Reliance has businesses not only in India but also
in 58 nations across the globe.

PAGE 2 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 8 NO. 3 2018

 Retail
Reliance Retail has grown by leaps and bounds. Since its inception in 2006, Reliance Retail
has served millions of customers. They cater to approximately 3.5 million customers every
week, and its loyalty programmer, Reliance One, has more than 30 million associated
customers (RIL.com, 2017f).

Reliance communications
The Reliance Group ventured in the telecom sector with the name Reliance
Communications (RCom). It is the flagship company of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group of
companies and was established in the year 2002. It is the leading company of the group,
and the third largest business group in India. Further, it is one of the largest private sector
companies in the information and communication sector with a subscriber base of 118
million, which includes more than 2.6 million subscribers in the overseas. It offers integrated
(including both wireless and wireline) and convergent (voice calls, internet data, and
videos) services through Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Global System for
Mobile (GSM) networks across the country. The company also offers various telecom
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services that include broadband, direct-to-home (DTH) and international calling facilities
(Business-standard.com, 2017). These services being supported by a nation-wide fiber
optic network and infrastructure made RCom the first telecom operator to provide pan-India
GSM and CDMA facilities along with a mobile platform, Rworld.
RCom was initially a part of the Reliance Industries started by Dhirubhai Ambani. However,
after the death of Dhirubhai Ambani, the group witnessed a split in 2006 between the
brothers Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani. As a result, Anil Ambani received business
related to telecom, power, entertainment and financial services, whereas Mukesh Ambani
got petrochemical, gas, oil refining and textiles. In addition, there was an agreement that
both the brothers would not venture into each other’s sector. Therefore, this split brought
RCom (earlier managed by Mukesh Ambani) under the new Anil Dhirubhai Group
(Business-standard.com, 2017).

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL)

Years after the split between the Ambani brothers, they buried the hatchet in 2010 and
terminated the non-compete agreement that prohibited them from entering into each
other’s area of operation (Scroll.in, 2017). And subsequently, Mukesh Ambani owned RIL
by acquiring 96 per cent stake in Infotel Broadband Services Limited (IBSL) for ₹ 4,800
crores. This company was then renamed as Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited. IBSL was the
only firm that won broadband spectrum in 22 zones in India, thereby making Jio the first
telecom operator to hold a pan-India unified license. This license has enabled Reliance Jio
to be able to provide all telecommunication-associated services through satellite with the
sole exception of Global Mobile Personal communication (The Hindu, 2017).
Jio first launched its services for its partners and employees for beta testing on December
27, 2015, the eve of Sri Dhirubhai Ambani’s 83rd birth anniversary. All the services were
commercially launched on September 5, 2016. The company could amass a subscriber
base of 16 million within one month of its operations and 50 million in 83 days, whereas
companies such as Airtel and Vodafone took 12 and 13 years, respectively (Indian Express,
2017). Jio has recently accounted that it has expanded to a family of 100 million
subscribers (RIL.com, 2017g).

Reliance Jio operations

Jio began its operations in the summer of 2015. In April 2015, Reliance Jio launched its first
product, Jio Chat. This messaging app had a voice and video calling feature and further
had the feature of Jio Chat Channel that allowed celebrities to connect with users. This
officially marked the beginning of Jio and was an attempt to create a user base for it. It even

VOL. 8 NO. 3 2018 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 3

 managed to achieve operating revenue of ₹ 415 crores for the Financial Year 2015 (FY15)
(Mukherjee, 2017). This was a resultant of the tie-up with the West Bengal Government.
Under the agreement, Reliance Jio provided free WiFi to the people of Kolkata. Powered by
Jio network, Kolkata became the first Indian city to have WiFi connectivity. Earlier also Jio
had provided free WiFi at certain places in Ahmedabad, Baroda and Surat.

Reliance Jio Applications

Mukesh Ambani launched Reliance Jio Applications, a new foray into the telecom industry,
which was not solely into the telecommunication sector. He saw the sector through an
entirely new light and launched a complete set of solutions rolled into one Jio sim card that
addressed the different needs of the customers through various applications. Reliance Jio
has a plethora of offering various services (Jio, 2017). Jio TV is a television entertainment
app that provides access to live streaming of more than 300 TV channels along with access
to shows aired in the last 7 days. The application also caters to a variety of linguistic
customers, as it includes regional TV channels along with English and Hindi. Jio Chat is a
chat service that aims to revolutionize the way people communicate; hence, the service
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offers the facility of enhanced messaging, voice/video/conference calling and a platform to

share pictures/stickers/videos (JioChat, 2016). Jio Cinema is a video library containing a
vast selection of movies that customers can enjoy. Jio Music provides music along with
radio services in more than 20 Indian languages. Customers can even download songs of
higher bitrate and resolution for later reference. Jio Mags provides access to numerous
magazines and archives of publishers that can be accessed in offline mode. Jio
XpressNews is a news reading application that provides access to newspapers and
articles that can be saved for later reference and reading. Jio Cloud is a cloud storage
space, where users can access any type of file and of any size. Similar to other cloud
service providers, Jio Cloud is accessible through phones, laptops and tablets. A unique
feature about this app is that it is also accessible through television and provides zero click
backup. Jio4GVoice promises to make any non-VoLTE 4G smartphone ready for HD voice
and video calls on Jio network and provides features such as conference calling, smart
calling, file sharing, selfie sticker and doodle. With offers worth ₹ 15,000 already preloaded,
Jio Money, a digital wallet app, allows users to make faster and seamless transactions
digitally. Jio Security helps in protecting the phone against digital threats and secures the
data. This also allows users to recover lost/stolen devices, protect against unsafe websites
and restore contact information. In a single subscription, a user can protect up to ten
devices. Jio Newspaper has more than 200 premium newspapers to choose from, thereby
promising to enhance the news reading experience of its users. The users can also connect
to JioNet WiFi that allows users to search, locate and connect to India’s superfast WiFi
network.
And above all, there is also a Jio Prime membership that allows Jio users to access all the
applications for free till March 31, 2018 (Jio.com, 2017).

Reliance Jio network

The telecom sector being close to his heart, Mukesh Ambani ensured that his entering the
sector this time would be marked by something huge. This was evident through the sheer
strength of the Jio network. Reliance Jio currently holds spectrum of 1,800 MHz (covering
14 circles) and 2,300 MHz (over 22 cities) and hence capable of providing
fourth-generation (4G) high-speed internet connectivity in key domains like education,
healthcare, security, financial services, government– citizen interface and entertainment.
With the help of an integrated and unified ecosystem, Reliance Jio is planning to provide
continuous and unbroken 4G services by using FDD-LTE on 1,800 MHz and TDD-LTE on
2,300 MHz.

PAGE 4 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 8 NO. 3 2018

 Jio has far better plans. The company also joined the “Bay of Bengal Gateway” cable
system under construction by collaborating with Telekom Malaysia, Vodafone Group,
Oman Telecommunications and Emirates Telecommunications. Further, Jio entered into an
association with Dialog Axiata PLC to provide connectivity to Asia, Middle East, Europe and
Africa, which would be achievable with the help of inter-connections that are prevailing as
well as recently built in these countries. Reliance Jio has also collaborated with Bharti Airtel
Limited for getting lease of data capability required for its under-sea cable system –
Network i2i Limited. Jio has also collaborated with RCom Ltd. for sharing the company’s
fiber optic network spread within India (The Wall Street Journal, 2013).
Furthermore, Reliance Jio entered into numerous agreements and collaborations to ensure
a greater reach and better service experience for their customers. They collaborated with
Ascend Telecom, Tower Vision, ATC India and Viom networks for sharing their towers
across the country. These collaborations gave Jio a huge advantage in terms of pan-India
coverage and ensured a good service experience for their customers. Given the free offers
that Jio launched with its services, there was bound to be a lot of pressure on their network
capacity. These associations hugely helped Jio in managing the load effectively. In
addition, Reliance Jio teamed up with Bharti Airtel for network infrastructure sharing. To
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have even better network facilities, Jio shared its own network capabilities while requesting
access to Airtel’s dedicated fiber I2I submarine cable that links India and Singapore (from
April 2013) (COAI, 2015). Further, Jio entered into an agreement with RCom for sharing
their extensive fiber optic network that spanned approximately 120,000 km of optic fiber in
April 2013, approximately 500,000 km of optic fiber in April 2014, and 45,000 towers in June
2013.

Offers and tariffs of Reliance Jio

Before the advent of Reliance Jio in the telecom market, industry players had been
experimenting with speed challenges, transparency, service bundling, pricing strategies
and quality of service. Jio, with its launch, has completely disrupted the market with its
services and also changed the way the sector operated. The company came up with
advanced technology and free and faster services in all spheres of telecommunication
services. Jio offers a wholesome one-stop solution for data, voice/audio calling,
messaging, magazines and from news to even entertainment. This turned the tables for all
its competitors and made them take notice. Jio touched a sphere that was untouched and
no other operator had thought about it. Thus, Jio took the advantage of becoming a first
mover.
The launch offer of Jio named as the “Welcome” offer disrupted the market by offering free
voice calls and unlimited free data, by allowing its customers to access the numerous Jio
applications without any charges and by accessing the World Wide Web. Jio offered all
these services by combining those with a free sim card, so the market was flooded with
customers queuing outside its offices. A further extension of the offer until December 2016
reeled in even more customers. Buoyed up by the good services, the customers spread the
word and themselves brought in more subscribers. Looking at this customer response, the
rival telecom operators started raising questions over TRAI that permitted Jio to offer free
services for such a long period. Amid these noises, Jio launched the second offer, named
“Happy New Year Plan”. The second plan was similar to the initial plan, but it restricted the
availability of unlimited free fast 4G data. Under this plan, the company put a cap on the
amount of free 4G data but did not abolish the free voice calls, messages, and slow speed
data. For complete details of the two plans, refer Exhibit 1.
Post the launch of Jio, all major telecom players scrambled towards monumental rate cuts
and new offers but none could come close. These reactionary offers seemed to be fueling
the popularity of Jio. The setback that Jio faced owing to indiscriminate increase of demand
of connections was also resolved through home delivery of sim cards (Sain, 2016).

VOL. 8 NO. 3 2018 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 5

 Having amassed a phenomenal subscriber base through its initial free offers, word in the
market is that Jio will soon make all its services payable. Continuing with their aim, Jio is
expected to keep the tariff plans reasonably affordable for all. The expected tariff plans as per
the company website for both prepaid and postpaid connections are given in Exhibit 2.

Reliance Jio competitors

Reliance Jio’s entry brought forth a frenzy of changes in the telecom sector and sent its
competitors into a barrage of strategic and operational changes. Enterprises of all sizes
clamored towards mergers and tie-ups, which led to alterations of the dynamics of the
sector. The future revealed the impact that these changes will have on the telecom sector.
The company faces stiff competition from several established players operating in the
sector for a long time. The top five players in the sector include Bharti Airtel Limited,
Vodafone India Limited, Idea Cellular Limited, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited and Aircel.
These five account for approximately 78.74 per cent of the complete subscriber base in
India. Until the month of March 2017, Bharti Airtel was leading the market with a market
share of 24.31 per cent followed by Vodafone with a market share of 19.15 per cent.
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Reliance with 9.91 per cent of the total subscription occupies the fourth position (India
Brand Equity Foundation, 2017). (See Exhibit 3 for competitors’ per cent market share).
The market share has been a surprise, as before the advent of Reliance Jio in the telecom
industry, the market shares of the competitors were somewhat similar. As of February 2014,
Airtel had the highest market share of 22.53 per cent followed by Vodafone at 18.19 per
cent, Idea at 14.78 per cent, Reliance Communications at 13.05 per cent and BSNL at 10.5
per cent. These top five companies account for more than 79 per cent of market share.
Listed below is a brief profile of the three major competitors of Jio before its launch:

1. Airtel: Bharti Airtel Limited is an Indian global telecommunications company

headquartered in New Delhi, India, with business operations in around 20 countries. It
is among the top mobile service providers in terms of subscribers. It offers services
such as 2G, 3G, 4G, fixed line, broad band and the like (Airtel.in, 2017).
2. Vodafone: Vodafone India Limited, an Indian subsidiary of Vodafone Group, is another
major player in the telecom sector in India with its head office in Mumbai. It is behind Airtel
in its market share, but has the presence in all telecom circles (Vodafone.in, 2017).
3. Idea cellular: It is a part of the Aditya Birla Group Company and has pan-India operations.
The company carried around 2 billion minutes on a daily basis during the quarter Q2 FY15
(Ideacellular.com, 2017a). It has a subscriber base of over 150 million (Ideacellular.com,
2017b).

Reliance Jio’s strategic direction

Reliance Jio identified many vulnerable spots to target their strikes with the hope of
achieving the maximum advantage. From the time and offers at the launch of marketing
strategies and collaborations, Reliance Jio has been strategically hammering its
competitor’s weakest spots. Jio came out with an initial plan of offering free sim cards with
unlimited free high-speed 4G data, voice/video calls, instant messaging and numerous free
applications that covered a range of services from news to entertainment to education. The
launch was to offer free services for 90 days according to the regulations by Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). However, the offer was extended till March 2017. Even
after undergoing various transformations, the essence of the offerings remained that same,
i.e. free data and voice services. This act of offering free services was instrumental in
enabling the company to acquire a huge subscriber base. Customers flocked in huge
numbers to enjoy its services, which helped them in acquiring a humongous subscriber
base within a record span of time.

PAGE 6 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 8 NO. 3 2018

 The pool of services being offered by Jio was beyond what other telecom giants such as
Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, etc. had been offering till then. Access to these services via free
applications encouraged telecom customers to invest time to know about the company
offers and to finally use the services. Through this step, Jio completely changed the sphere
of its working and redefined itself as a wholesome service provider, even though Jio
acquired a new set of competitors to look after (e.g. television streaming app Hotstar, online
magazine portals, digital payment systems, etc.).
On the advertising front, Jio roped in Shah Rukh Khan, as brand ambassador, and A.R.
Rahman to host the launch function. Both these celebrities had earlier been associated with
their rival Bharti Airtel. Both Shah Rukh Khan and A.R. Rahman are global celebrities with
a huge fan following, and the company sought to ride on their popularity to build a positive
perception via association.
In addition, Jio entered the market by providing free services (sim cards, 1,500 voice
minutes and 9,000 SMS for three months) along with LYF smartphones. LYF smartphones
were manufactured by an Indian mobile handset company that is a subsidiary of Reliance
Retail setup in the year 2015. These smartphones were launched at a starting range of
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₹ 2,000 to 3,000. Given the affordable prices of the smartphones, they cater to a huge
customer base including those that are cost conscious.

Road ahead
The era of paying for voice calls is ending. No Jio customer will ever have to pay for voice
calls again. Jio will give the “power of data” to each Indian to fulfill every dream and to
collectively take India to global digital leadership. Mukesh Ambani
(Epaperbeta.timesofindia.com, 2017).
From June 2015, the details about Jio’s 4G services were unveiled until today, and there
have been a lot of changes that have taken place in the telecom sector. With the virtual
merger between the two Ambani brothers, the complete Reliance Group is now behind Jio
(The Economic Times, 2016). This has triggered talks about merger between Idea and
Vodafone in India (The Economic Times, 2017c). This can have a huge impact on Jio and
the telecom sector in general. The profitability factor that was earlier determined on the
average revenue per user (ARPU) will continue to dominate. The companies will be looking
at the different ways and means to increase the ARPU to maximize the returns. This would
also downsize the cost in such a way that their operations do not suffer and the downsizing
does not affect profit negatively.
Samsung and Jio recently won “Best Mobile Innovation for Emerging Markets” award and
their strategic partnership’s focus is to make India digital with the world’s lowest data rates
across towns and rural areas. They plan to achieve the same by deploying one of the
world’s largest Greenfield LTE network in India (RIL.com, 2017h). Airtel spokesperson said
that the company is unfazed by Jio and its strategies. Gopal Vittal, CEO, in a recent
interview said that, “Airtel is used to brutal competition, it does not faze us.”
(ETTelecom.com, 2017).
These tumultuous changes in the telecom sector have not only created havoc in the
operational aspects of telecom operators but have also affected the strategic marketing
communication of these operators. The advent of Jio has brought about a radical change
in the scope of marketing communication from the channels used to implement strategies
Keywords:
adapted to the responsibilities attached to it.
Marketing,
Amidst these changes, one thing is certain: Reliance Jio has created a storm in the Consumer behaviour,
telecommunication sector in India. Now, it is only a matter of time, which will tell who will Marketing strategy/methods,
come victorious out of this storm. Brand management/equity

VOL. 8 NO. 3 2018 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 7

 Notes
1. 4G, or better known as fourth-generation technology, is the graduated version of 3G or
third-generation technology. Through this technology, the internet experience of the users will be
improved and they will have access to faster internet connectivity compared to 3G
(SearchMobileComputing, 2017).
2. Dhirubhai’s brand – his son’s castaway, Business Standard, 24 January 2013, www.business-standard.
com/article/companies/dhirubhai-s-brand-his-son-s-castaway-112071100032_1.html (accessed 24
January 2017).

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Exhibit 1. Jio welcome offer

Table EI
Free sim card
Calls Unlimited
High-speed data (4G data) Unlimited
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Messages Unlimited
JIO App usage Unlimited
Validity December 31, 2016
JIO Happy New Year Offer
Free sim card
Calls Unlimited
High-speed data (4G data) 1 GB/per day
Slow-speed data Speed of 284 kbps post completion of high-speed data
Messages Unlimited
JIO App usage Unlimited
Validity January 1, 2017 to March 31, 2017

PAGE 10 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 8 NO. 3 2018

 Downloaded by University of Louisiana at Lafayette At 05:24 26 September 2018 (PT)

Table EII
₹19 ₹129 ₹149 ₹299 ₹499 ₹999 ₹1499

JIO tariff
Voice calls free (unlimited ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
local, STD and roaming)
4G internet data 0.1 GB⫹ 0.75 GB⫹ 0.3 GB⫹ 2 GB⫹ 4 GB⫹ 20 GB⫹
Unlimited data Unlimited data Unlimited data Unlimited data Unlimited data Unlimited data
during the during the during the during the during the during the
Night Night Night Night Night Night
Exhibit 2. Prepaid tariffs

WiFi/broadband data 0.2 GB 1.5 GB 0.7 GB 4.0 GB 8.0 GB 10.0 GB 20.0 GB

(JioNet Hotspot)
JIO Apps (Rs 1,250 worth ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
of subscription)
Unlimited messages (L ⫹ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
N)
ISD minutes X X X X Rate Cutter Rate Cutter 30 minutes ⫹
Rate Cutter
Validity of packs (Days) 1 7 28 21 28 28 28
Postpaid tariffs
JIO tariff ₹149 ₹499 ₹999 ₹1,499 ₹2,499 ₹3,999 ₹4,999
Voice calls free (unlimited ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Local, STD and roaming)
4G Data 0.3 GB⫹ 4.0 GB⫹ 10.0 GB⫹ 20.0 GB⫹ 35.0 GB⫹ 60.0 GB⫹ 75.0 GB⫹
Unlimited at Unlimited at Unlimited at Unlimited at Unlimited at Unlimited at Unlimited at
Night Night Night Night Night Night Night
WiFi data (JioNet Hotspot) 0.7GB 8GB 20GB 40GB 70GB 120GB 150GB
JIO Apps (subscription ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
worth Rs 1,250)
Unlimited SMS (L ⫹ N) 100 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
ISD minutes X Rate Cutter RateCutter 30 minutes ⫹ 50 minutes ⫹ 80 minutes ⫹ 100 minutes ⫹

VOL. 8 NO. 3 2018

Rate-Cutter Rate-Cutter Rate-Cutter Rate-Cutter
Validity of packs (Days) Bill cycle Bill cycle Bill cycle Bill cycle Bill cycle Bill cycle Bill Cycle
Terms and Conditions that apply
⫺Voice calls will be completely free–no charge will be deducted for voice calls or data used to make voice calls
⫺Unlimited during the night refers to 4G internet data usage between 2:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m.
⫺WiFi internet data services mentioned in the plan refer to the services availed via public hotspots of the company
⫺Subscribers will be able to avail the offer from April 1, 2017
⫺The internet data used by the consumers for using Jio applications, making video calls, and other content available on the internet would be charged as per the
allocation of the data plan
⫺Non-utilized data would be forfeited at the end of the validity term
⫺The new prepaid offers of ₹19, ₹129, and ₹299 cannot be availed as a first recharge by the new subscribers
⫺25 per cent additional internet data benefits will be given to students once they can provide a valid identity proof
⫺Prepaid plans are inclusive of all applicable taxes
⫺On postpaid plans, taxes will be charged as applicable

EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES

PAGE 11
 Exhibit 3. Market share

Table EIII
Name Market share (IBEF, 2017) (%)

Bharti Airtel 24.31

Vodafone 19.15
Idea 16.94
Reliance 9.91
Aircel 8.43
BSNL 8.35
Tata 5.81
Others 7.1

Corresponding author
Dr Bikramjit Rishi can be contacted at: brishi@imt.edu
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PAGE 12 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 8 NO. 3 2018