Reliance Jio may have more 'some good news' for Telecom Industry

Most popular telecom companies in India like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular will dedicated more economic suffering through last quarter with Reliance Jio Infocomm unlikely to loosen its costing offensive in its bid to maximize consumer purchases and close the gap with its competitors, analysts said.

The cost wars, they said, would still continue as Jio is focused on keeping and boosting its almost 187 million-strong subscriber base.

“The price war will continue as (parent) Reliance Industries (RIL) is very company about the technique going forward on (telecom arm) Jio, which continues to be focused on consumer acquisition and is open to further tariff plan price reduce based on actions of holders,” BNP Paribas said in a note to clients seen by ET.

Analysts at JP Morgan backed the view, saying, “Jio undoubtedly requires to offer the most aggressive tariffs and increase a higher subscriber share, and its key business down flows are powerful enough to maintain this strategy, mainly as core project spending drops.”

Jio’s future pricing technique, according to the brokerage, could induce its economic stressed rivals to influence tariffs even though this could “finally lead to a loss of market share.”

What could be mainly trying for the telecom is that Jio proud “it can be beneficial in the today tariff environment” and still continue to invest.

In past, Jio Infocomm outclassed noted operators Airtel and Idea, reporting a 1.2% sequential benefit in net profit to Rs 510 crore in the last quarter end of 2017-18 with maximum average income per user and voice and data usage.

Bharti Airtel shares rose 0.15% to Rs 409.55 at the close on the BSE on Monday, while Idea’s shares boosted 0.36% after listed a lower-than-expected Rs 930.6 crore net loss in the March quarter, helped by a deduction in prices and maximum other income. The Reliance scrip fell 3.2% closing at Rs 963.10.

Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said the telecom industry is “unlikely to witness any tariff hike for the next 3-to-6 months at least” as it expects both “Jio and Bharti to target on appropriating consumers” of the appearing Idea-Vodafone merging entity, which is hugely predicted to shed some income trend share, post-merger.

“Jio proposes to collect its tariffs at a discount to peers, and we don’t see the company in a rush to elevate ARPU as it’s mainly focus after rest on follower’s adjust,” the US brokerage said in a note after Jio’s earnings call.

For the country’s older telecom agencies, Jio’s debut in September 2016 with its confused tariffs compelled them to answer, putting further pressure on their income and profit. This competition triggered incorporations in the industry.

Most of predicated the quick of Jio’s subscriber lunch to rest of robust, given that “nearly three of every four new incremental 4G LTE phone vendors opt for Jio’s service and the step of JioPhone additive remains strong too.”

Research said Jio has specification scheme it will influence revenue its action plan completely in India with the fiber broadband and venture business head-up, with discontinue commercial rollouts coming soon.

“Jio recommend in the mainly under serviced enterprise trend, it could dominate challenger, given its strong data network.

With Jio users consuming reach to an hour a day on average on their phones, the 4G telecom watch an emerging “ad construct opportunity.