Telcos' fall over 4% on Mukesh Ambani's Jio offer extension

Reliance Industries' chairman Mukesh Ambani announced on Thursday that Jio's promotional offer, the 'Welcome Offer', which was slated to expire on December 31 would be extended till March 31, 2017. On the announcement, the shares of the incumbent telecom players fell nearly 5%. 

The extended promotional offer has been called the "Happy New Year" offer and will be available for all the new Jio users as well as its existing 52 million customers (without buying a new sim card), Ambani said. 

Under the offer, all Jio customers would be eligible to free data, video, and domestic voice calls till March 31, 2017. 

The shares of Bharti Airtel were down 2.33% at Rs 316.95, down Rs 7.55 apiece; Idea Cellular down 3.55% or Rs 2.55 lower at Rs 74.80 on the BSE. The shares of Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications were down the most -- 4.25% or Rs 1.60 at Rs 36.05 apiece on the BSE. 

Ambani, while giving an address that was broadcasted live through various channels, including a YouTube feed plugged to the company's Facebook and Twitter pages, and on Jio Chat and Jio Play, said that nearly 900 crore calls were blocked by the three incumbent players highlighting the interconnectivity points issue that the domestic players have been sparring over since the launch of Jio. 

However, he added that as of Wednesday, the call block issue had come down to 20% from the earlier 90% and would come down further to 0,2%.