Jio blames rivals for low data price, seeks TRAI help

Reliance Jio, the country’s largest telecom operator by size, said attempts to increase telecom tariffs have failed due to competitive actions by rivals, and asked TRAI to intervene to raise data prices. Traditionally, it is Jio’s rivals such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea which make such allegations. Responding to a TRAI consultation paper on […]

Pushed to the brink, Vodafone Idea gives Jio a fight

Vodafone Idea, an operator that is struggling to stay afloat, seems to have finally decided to abandon its long-held strategy of allowing Reliance Jio to undercut it on prices and lure away its customers. For the last four years, Vodafone and Idea always allowed Jio to price its offerings lower, thus helping the Mukesh Ambani […]

Hathway, Den to launch advanced, dual-tuner set-top-box

Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom and cable company, has placed an order of around 5 lakh advanced set-top-boxes with Dixon Technologies, including those for deployment on Hathway and Den’s cable networks. Unlike the IPTV-enabled set-top-boxes being rolled out as part of the Jio Fiber network, many of these STBs sourced from Dixon are not meant […]

Jio reduces validity of long-term plans to 11 months

Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator, has reduced the validity of its long-term recharges from 1 year to 11 months. Other operators continue to offer 1 year validity for their yearly plans. Jio used to offer two yearly plans – one priced at Rs 2,020 and another priced at Rs 1,299. The costlier plan was […]

Shutdown fears? Vodafone Idea is still expanding

Even as shares of Vodafone Idea tanked 17% over fears that the company may shut down or file for bankruptcy, the latest numbers posted by the company show that it continues to invest in its network. The correction in the stock price followed a renewed warning yesterday that the company may not be able to […]

Jio’s 6 paise charge led to massive shift in customers to Airtel

Reliance Jio’s decision to charge 6 paise per minute for outgoing calls to other networks had a massive impact on consumer behavior, according to indications from Bharti Airtel’s numbers and management commentary. Jio had, on October 9, announced that it was withdrawing all plans that came with free minutes to non-Jio networks, and from then […]

Airtel keen for a second round of price increase

Bharti Airtel, the former No.1 telecom operator in India, said it is keen on having a second round of price increases in the year starting April, but can do it only if the rest of the industry follows suit. Airtel said it needs to get more money from its customers to ensure that its investors […]

Reliance blocks sideloading of third-party Android apps on Jio Fiber box

Reliance Jio, the country’s largest telecom operator, has started blocking the ‘sideloading’ of third-party Android apps on its Jio Fiber set top boxes. The operator had recently introduced Android Pie-based fiber set top boxes for its users over the last few weeks, and subscribers soon realized that the box came with two key assets that […]

Reliance Jio users cut down on data, voice usage after price hike

Users of Reliance Jio’s 4G service have started cutting down on their data and voice usage the company implemented price increases in December, thus limiting the benefits of the price hike from fully flowing through to the company. The average data consumed by a Reliance Jio user fell to 11.1 GB per month during October-December […]

Jio Fiber crosses 1 million subscriber mark, but addition slows

Reliance Jio Fiber, the wired broadband service from Reliance Jio, crossed the 1 million subscriber mark in November, but the company’s pace of customer additions showed a sharp slowdown during the month. The company added 43,198 Jio Fiber customers during November 2019, taking the total to 1.02 million. With over 10 lakh fiber users, Jio […]

Airtel, Reliance Jio release list of WiFi calling supported mobile handsets

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have released a list of supported mobile phone handsets that can be used with their newly launched ‘WiFi Calling’ feature. While Airtel supports only four brands — Apple, OnePlus, Xiaomi and Samsung, Reliance Jio’s WiFi calling can be activated on phones from 12 brands. Besides three of the four companies […]

After Star & Sony, Zee Entertainment adds app to Jio Fiber box

Zee Entertainment Enterprises’ Zee5 has become the latest content app from a major Indian broadcaster to be added to Reliance Jio’s Fiber box, following close on the heels of Star India’s Hotstar and Sony Pictures Networks’ Liv. With this, Jio Fiber now offers apps from nearly all the major entertainment broadcasters of India with the […]

TRAI unlikely to recommend floor pricing

Telecom regulator TRAI is unlikely to recommend floor pricing for voice and data services in India due to ideological as well as practical reasons, according to industry officials. The telecom regulator today came out with a consultation paper saying it wants to broad-base the discussion on setting minimum price for data and voice. At present, […]

Jio cuts validity of 149 pack, remains cheapest under new 4G plans

A day after shocking consumers by increasing plan prices by around 20-40%, Reliance Jio has re-introduced the Rs 149 unlimited plan, but with a shorter validity and lower daily data allowance. The original Rs 149 plan used to offer 1.5 GB of daily data for four weeks (28 days) and was the most affordable monthly […]

No dearth of 5G spectrum in India – Govt; auction next year

Government of India has denied suggestions that India does not have enough spectrum to implement 5G wireless technologies. Replying to a question in parliament, communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said India has set apart 275 MHz of spectrum for 5G services. He, however, admitted that Broadband India Forum — a policy think tank headed by […]

ANALYSIS: Can Reliance Jio avoid increasing 4G data prices?

On Tuesday night, Reliance Jio — the telecom operator that has made wireless data accessible to crores of Indians for the first time — said it would adopt ‘appropriate increases’ in tariffs over the next few weeks to help generate enough money to fund investments. The comment came in the wake of similar statements by […]

Reliance Jio Fiber overtakes You Broadband within 1 month

Reliance Jio added 8.6 lakh customers in the first month of its operation, overtaking You Broadband, which has a total of 7.5 lakh customers, in the first month itself. Jio also equaled Hathway Cable’s broadband customer numbers in its first month of commercial operation. At the end of the first month, Jio had one third […]