Jio rolls out budget-friendly broadband plan ahead of IPL

After launching aggressive tariff plans for postpaid mobile users, Reliance Jio has come out with a low-priced home broadband plan with attractive content bundling options that may disrupt rival Bharti Airtel's home broadband and DTH (direct to home) digital TV businesses, analysts said. Jio on Monday launched a home broadband plan, starting at ₹198 a month, with bundled entertainment benefits for additional monthly payments, in the run-up to the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament starting on Friday, intensifying its push for higher revenue-generating premium customers.

"Jio's cheaper fibre broadband base plan is targeted at acquiring new users from peers, and this disruptive innovation at the bottom of the market will put pressure on Bharti Airtel and deflate ARPUs (average revenue per user) at the upper end of the market," J P Morgan said in a note.