Top telcos battle it out for 150 million users looking to port numbers

India’s top four telecom services providers are vying to sign up more than 150 million mobile users who may be looking to port their numbers, thanks to a rapid consolidation that has seen Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices exiting the market, and Aircel shrinking operations. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio Infocomm are all coming up with new tariff plans in an effort to attract these customers, while also trying to keep their existing subscribers stick around.

Shortly after Idea and Airtel launched 10-day validity plans under ₹100, offering free calling and 1GB of data to match Jio’s plans, the Mukesh Ambani-owned telco late last week unleashed another price disruption, giving 50% extra data or a discount of ₹50 to those who have subscribed to its plans that offered 1GB of data per day. Importantly, it brought down the entry price of 1GB a day data plans to ₹149 for 28 days, the lowest in the industry, which will likely force its rivals to match up, hitting their average revenue per user.

Analysts said the use of voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) technology — which allows telcos to use their bandwidth more efficiently — and the 57% cut in IUC charge from October 1have given Jio a cost advantage, which will allow it to drive rates further lower if it needs to. “Because of consolidation, there is a sizeable subscriber base which the companies are trying to acquire to strengthen and consolidate their customer base,” said Harsh Jagnani, the sector head (telecom) at ratings firm Icra. “The pricing competition is expected to continue for the next twothree quarters before easing out.”


According to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), Tata Teleservices, which is in the midst of a merger with Bharti Airtel, had 40.2 million subscribers at the end of October 2017. Aircel, which shut shop in six circles, had 88.25 million customers and Reliance Communication, which closed its wireless services in November, had 61.22 million users.