Conflicting reports by PTI and IANS has resulted in media and in one case the same news daily, The Economic Times issuing two very different numbers on total subscribers for Reliance Jio 4G. One ET article for instance claims that Reliance Jio has seven lakh subscribers pre-launch, while a later ET piece on the same day claims the pre-launch number is 70 lakh subscribers.
The answer to the puzzle lies in the data consumed per user. Reliance Jio had stated that its pre-launch users had consumed a total of 13 million GB of data, at an average of 18.5 GB per user. That calculation works out if the subscriber base is seven lakh users.
Jio had launched an invite only, free 4G data plan to their staff. Each of the company’s employees were allowed to invite ten people to free 4G plans through a unique invite code.
Since the plans were free people had a data buffet, which has resulted in great numbers for Jio to publicize. Thanks to the number of free users Jio has got, news outlets are already speculating that Jio will overtake Bharti Airtel in subscribers before launch.
But Jio 4G is expected to be priced at Rs. 0.5/MB of data, and the price impact of this tariff on current free users is below.
Still, the entry of Jio is likely to shake up the market. Analysts have predicted a steep fall in data prices with Jio’s entry - expecting it to drop from Rs. 0.23 per MB to Rs. 0.1 per MB by the end of the year. Reliance’s own shareholder releases show that promoters in the company have increased their stake by approximately 2.5% over the last nine months, reflecting their optimism.
Data consumption/month per user
(under free pre-launch plan)
Post-launch price user would pay per month
(under expected Reliance Jio 4G tariff)
Kashmir
3.48 GB
Rs 1740
North East
2.52 GB
Rs 1260
Rajasthan
2.44 GB
Rs 1220
Gujarat
2.1 GB
Rs 1055
Nationwide
1.89 GB
Rs 945
