Reliance Jio discounts are not going anywhere for now, here’s why

Reliance Jio Infocomm is expected to pursue its pricing strategy of sharp discounts and complimentary services for the next 12-18 months in a bid to garner about 15% of India’s wireless subscribers, a move that will continue to hurt rivals, analysts said.
The tactic would lead to pressure on the average revenue per user (ARPU) of incumbent operators, US bank Morgan Stanley said in a report. ARPU for Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India has been effectively capped at about Rs 300, thanks to Jio’s current offers, it said. The report added that Jio, which started services on September 5, has netted 6% of the country’s wireless subscribers and aims to get at least 15%.
In March, Jio set a target of capturing about half of the industry revenue market share by 2020-2021. Airtel had a revenue market share of 33.1%, Vodafone India 23.5% and Idea Cellular 18.7% in the December quarter. Jio’s rate of subscriber addition has dipped, which would be all the more reason for the newcomer to maintain its aggressive pricing, analysts said.
The company reached the 100 million user mark in the first 170 days, adding consumers at an average of 600,000 a day. By March 31, the subscriber base had risen to 109 million, an incremental 9 million in 40 days or an average of 225,000 per day.
Nomura said the relative slowing down of customer additions was because Jio had already penetrated a large share of almost 134 million available 4G phones in India as of March 31. “The subscriber addition pace will be capped by new 4G phone addition (likely at 7-8 million per month) in coming months. With several vendors focusing on launching 4G handsets, the 4G penetration is likely to increase,” the Nomura analysts said. “To enable the non-4G handset owners to migrate…, Jio will aggressively push JioFi (hotspot device) in the near term.”
Brokerage firm Emkay Global Financial Services said that Jio’s target to get a decent paying subscriber base would keep the hyper-competitive scenario alive for the industry in the medium term. It added that Jio’s profit and loss statement, expected from the second quarter starting July 1, would dictate the momentum in the stock price of parent company Reliance Industries.