Mukesh Ambani officially launched Reliance Jio in September 2016, which brought a drastic change in the telecom industry of India. The arrival of Jio not only threatened the incumbents but also revolutionized the consumption patterns of mobile services.
Jio’s launch came with four months of absolutely free voice, SMS, and data usage to all its users. This was a very unusual step and put pressure on competitors in terms of pricing. Once the free period was over, Jio rolled out its first set of 4G plans on 1st September 2016, and these were incredibly affordable and came with loads of freebies.
Affordable Plans and Features
Jio unveiled 10 different plans ranging from Rs 19 for a day, which includes unlimited calling, SMS, and 100 MB of data. Other offers were the Rs 129 plan with 750 MB of data, unlimited night data, and usage of Jio apps for 7 days. The Rs 149 plan gave 300 MB of data with unlimited calls and SMS for 28 days. The other higher tariff plans included Rs 499, Rs 999, Rs 1,499, Rs 2,499, Rs 3,999, and Rs 4,999, which also offered different amounts of data but had similar additional services such as free night data, SMS, and Jio apps.
Impact on the Market
The pricing strategy adopted by Jio and the amount of data offered were very competitive and forced other telecom operators to reconsider their plans. The market thus experienced a major change from expensive data packs to more reasonably priced and data-intensive packages. This change was so dramatic that it resulted in a reduction of the data charges for everyone, meaning that high-speed internet became affordable to the majority.
Market Trends and Consumer Behaviour
First, Jio has the strategy of free calling, which was revolutionary in the market at that time. However, the consumer’s demands evolved, and they began to look for data-only plans. Jio was able to make this change as other companies also followed this model, and it has now become common in the market. In the present time, all the telecom plans focus on data, as it has become a basic necessity for consumers.
It can be said that Jio has changed India’s telecom sector to a great extent. The strategies of pricing and services have made the company grow in mobile data usage among its customers.
