As per a latest Economic Times report, Airtel is bracing itself to take on Reliance Jio Infocomm’s home broadband offerings. As per the report, Airtel will launch a customised android-based set top box (STB) that would converge digital entertainment and broadband services. This is aimed at countering the upcoming Jio Giga Fiber.
Airtel is likely to come up with integrated tariff packs targeting mid-to-top end postpaid mobile users, home broadband and direct to home (DTH) digital TV customers. According to ET, two people with direct knowledge of the development have revealed that these users would be treated as unified home users of the company’s converged services. Not only this, Airtel might also try to specifically counter Jio-Fiber’s ‘Welcome Offer’ to home broadband customers by selectively offering HD/LED televisions along with a set top box on super-premium tariff packs.
ET claimed that one of the persons cited said, “Airtel has sizeable customer numbers across its post-paid mobile, home broadband and DTH platforms…The objective is to use hardware resources and leverage existing customer relationships across the three lines of business to take an integrated view of the consumer to grow the company’s base of users opting for higher revenue-generating converged telecom services.”
Mukesh Ambani recently unveiled the much awaited Jio Fiber plan in the company’s 42nd Annual General Meeting. The company has come up with a holistic plan to dominate carriage, content and commerce. As per an article by Economic Times, “Jio Giga Fiber will essentially offer lifetime free voice calls from landline phones and high speed broadband, besides free high definition TV and dish with minimum subscription of Rs 700 per month.” The fiber services will be launched on 5th September this year which is third anniversary of Reliance Jio’s launch.
The broadband service speed will start at 100 Mbps minimum speed and will go up to 1 Gbps. The price of the service is in the range of 700 rupees to 10,000 rupees per month. The top end plan will provide broadband, Jio Home TV and Jio’s Internet of Things (IoT) services. The customers who subscribe to Jio’s forever plans will get 4k LED television and 4k set top box for free. The company will also bundle premium Over the Top (OTT) content providers subscription in its plans.
One of the big ticket announcements of the company was to allow the user’s watch a movie on the day of release. “Also, for the first time in India, we are introducing a disruptive concept for watching new movies. Premium Jio Fiber customers will be able to watch movies in their living rooms the same day these movies are released in theatres,” said Mukesh Ambani.
The announcement of Reliance Jio Fiber is being seen as a gamechanger in India’s Telecom services industry. And with Airtel bracing itself for the major shift that is going to take place, it seems that competition is going to intensify in the era of converged services.