Reliance Jio 4G announcement cost Airtel and Idea Rs. 13,500 crores

Within just 45 minutes, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio announcement made stock prices of Bharti Airtel and Idea take a nose dive by about 9%.

Jio's announcement of free voice calls on any network with no roaming charges is a huge wake up call for market leader Airtel. Shares tumbled to a low of Rs. 302 on BSE with a 9% slump within minutes of the announcement costing Airtel Rs. 12000 crore in market capitalization. Idea Cellular too wasn't left unaffected and lost Rs. 2800 crore in market value.

Reliance Jio will offer the cheapest data rates among current players as well at about Rs. 50/GB compared to Rs. 250 on other carriers. The base plan starts at Rs. 149 per month and you can jump to Rs. 4999 for power users. Jio will be going live for the public starting September 5th and will be free for all 4G smartphones with unlimited data, calls and messages till 31st December 2016.

Reliance Jio 4G Plans, Free Calling and MNP

Although numbers weren't shared, Reliance Jio is already expected to have about 2.5 million subscribers in its trial phase and more will be added with the welcome offer.

With free voice calling for life, no roaming charges, no night packs nor monthly SMS packs, voice calls minutes, special pricing on festivals, Mukesh Ambani has send shudders into the incumbent players in the Telecom industry. But he humbly still asked other players to compete in the space and not try to degrade user experience by rejecting calls from the network. Something which we have experienced of late.

But the all-IP network still needs to be tested and hence the welcome offer till 31st December till which Reliance Jio will iron out all the kinks with its services and also see how other players handle the competition. You can check out Jio 4G monthly plans and data packs here.

Via: IndiaTimes