As
Reliance Jio continues to entice consumers with tempting offers in its
bid to expand its customer base, the price war between the mobile
telecom companies is heating up with state-run BSNL set to cut tarrifs
to better Jio's offer.
Though
Jio's offers of free voice calling on its network is exclusive to those
who are 4G subscribers, BSNL plans, expected to be cheaper than Jio,
will be open to 2G and 3G users, which constitute the majority of mobile
customers.
BSNL,
the loss-making public sector unit, is absent in key markets such as
Mumbai and Delhi that are instead serviced by MTNL. But it makes up for
this through its significant presence in key markets such as Kerala,
Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Odisha, Punjab and UP. The company is
expected to announce zero-voice-tariff plans from January and these
would be lower than the Rs 149 entry price of Jio.
"We
are closely observing the market as well as Jio's performance. We will
also come up with lifetime free-voice plans from the new year as part of
fresh offerings. We plan to be even lower than the Jio plan, and this
could be by Rs 2-4." Anupam Shrivastava, BSNL chairman and managing
director, was quoted saying by Times of India.
BSNL's
plan was said to be for mobile customers who also have a broadband
connection at home, but Shrivastava clarified that that the free-voice
facility will also be available when a subscriber uses it outside the
residence.
"The
idea is to use the home broadband to route outgoing mobile calls
through the landline network. We estimate that a large amount of time is
spent at home, and so here we can ride on our wire-line operations," he
said.
Analysts
suggest that the already crowded telecom market may be further affected
by BSNL's offer, forcing operators such as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea to
slash tariffs.
"Others
will also have to follow suit. But this can be a risk for BSNL and its
ARPU(Average Revenue Per User) can be hit." Prashant Singhal, partner at
Ernst & Young, said.
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