A lot of Reliance Jio users are unhappy because the Jio Happy New Year Offer will be ending on March 31, which means users will have to start paying for data and bundled services. The company has launched one offer where users have to pay Rs 99 to subscribe and continue to enjoy their services at a discounted price. According to a new report in TeleAnalysis, a source at Jio has claimed that company may extend deadline to April 30.
No final decision has been taken yet, according to the source. Reportedly, Jio has only managed to rope in 22-27 million users into Prime and the extended time will allow them to increase that base.
Earlier, a Bank of America Merrill Lynch survey today claimed nearly 82 per cent of Reliance Jio users surveyed have expressed their willingness to continue with its services even after the free offers ends,
In the same breath, the report said that incumbents, particularly Bharti Airtel, should be able to retain most of high-end subscribers given they provide better voice/customer service, but the Average Revenue per User (ARPUs) will come under pressure. "Almost 82 per cent of the surveyed participants responded that they will continue with Jio connection even after the ending of the free offer. A further 15 per cent agreed to continue with Jio connection if the voice issue is fixed," it said.
The findings are based on a survey conducted in the third week of March of 1,000 Jio users to gauge how the consumer behaviour changes after having experienced Jio services for almost six months and also in the wake of the announcement of the new Prime offers. "Of the respondents planning to continue with Jio services, 96 per cent of subscribers plan to subscribe to Jio's Prime offers, with Rs 303 plan as the most popular. However, 50 per cent of the respondents stated that they use Jio services because it is currently available for free, with higher data speeds accounting for 28 per cent of use case," the report pointed out.
The report said the findings indicated a "decent interest" from consumers to continue with Jio service when the free offering ends this month. It added that 98.7 per cent of customers surveyed used a smartphone and 63 per cent of users had monthly bills of Rs 250 plus. "Though our survey may not be representative of the broader market dynamics (as it is an online survey focusing mainly on mid-to-high end smartphone users), we note that this increases risks for incumbents like Bharti to retain high-end subscribers," it said.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch said while it remains comfortable that incumbents particularly Bharti should be able to retain most of high-end subscribers given better voice and customer service, it sees "ARPUs (Average Revenue per User) under pressure as most consumers will stay back for lower ARPUs". "...We see Bharti as being best positioned among incumbent telcos to compete with Jio, with industry leading subscriber share and data capacity...," the report added.
With inputs from ANI
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