At 31st of March Reliance Jio extended the date of "Prime" Membership for another 15 days it means till 15th of April any users can buy the Prime Membership along with "Summer Surprise Offer" which can be avail by recharging Rs. 303 or more, although at 6th of April Reliance Jio has withdrawn the summer surprise offer after TRAI ask them to do so but Jio guarantees the 3 Months Data for a complimentary basis to those users who already recharged with Prime Membership + the recharge amount of Rs. 303 or more. Jio may be forced to stop taking recharges of prime membership a week before the "promised" extended date but one thing for sure any freebie offer suits Reliance Jio more then their competitors.
In recent past subscription charges of different services has gone high after Telecos bought spectrum in very high prices compare to before in "First come first basis". It was a time when Telecos thought to recover the money since many small players came, shined and doomed due to irregularities during "Telecom Revolution" and hurt the big players automatically. Those days MNPs was in full swing and at one hand when small players was busying luring customers with some initial offers, big players was making people to realize that their Network and Infrastructure is the most trusted one to choose with.
Indeed the quality of Telecom Industry was degraded and mostly companies start sharing spectrum with each other to expand their business in many very little resources. The scene was not lesser like any startup where even Financiers and Builders jumped with a collaboration with Indian and Foreign groups. Reliance is newest in the Industry and got latest resources for their 4G services which can be easily tuned to 5G in near future as Mr. Ambani himself referred. For Jio the infrastructure is one time investment for next 10 years atleast. Jio is currently targeting only in 4G / VoLTE users who got it in their Smartphones and surely in near future as well.
After Jio came into the picture Telecom companies start loosing money due to Jio's free model, before other Telecoms only making losses from their Tower business and now at this stage mostly Telecos are distancing their core business with the infrastructure one due to have no space left to survive. Reliance's strategy was quite clear with Jio, its not about only Telecoms but also about the services. Their investment in Network 18, a gradually looking strategic partnership with India's biggest broadcaster STAR INDIA was one of such steps which make Jio offering more sensible.
Other operators despite of being trend setters came up with their own desperate move of VAS Services and forced to follow the Jio's pricing with a unified recharge of Data, SMS, Call which made the Telecos to pay the price of it. The bigger challenge for other Telecos to keep the existing customer under their roof as its very hard to attract the new one. The reason Jio extending the free model by the name of "Complimentary Offer" due to their crucial planning on expanding the network and tat is the only area where they must be concerning on for long term. Data speed is the biggest problem in Digital Era movement and that will remain but any Telecos prime focus is the Network coverage and as Mr. Ambani in some of his speech mentioned his company's focus to expand the Network by 98% throughout the Nation.
No doubt after Jio, data consumption in the Country increased despite of cut in regular high speed data from Jio bringing down from "Unlimited" to "4Gb per day" to "1Gb per day". Internet connections gone stable after January 2017 compare to last year due to heavy usage but still in many places peoples are not getting the desired standards of 4G. Jio's freebie is the example of people's actual take on Jio paid. Jio surpasses 100 million subscribers within 6 Months after its official launch but tat mark is more because of Jio's free service. Even despite of entire March month, Jio extended the Prime Membership date for another 15 days by offering the complimentary free data for another 3 Months for free which forced those people to opt Jio who made their mind to ditch it.
Problem with Jio is tat they hardly able to achieve what they promised in terms of quality. Currently they're struggling in Mobile network and their Broadband and Jio Link are yet to reach in every doorstep, though currently they're in trial run with free subscription on. There is no doubt that Jio has gone extra mile with their subscription plans with no other operator has did so, other operators despite of being competitors with each other was united by the excuse of competitive conflicts. Indeed any brand establishes due to business only but sometime it requires to connect with the people. Mostly Reliance's concentration will be to continue the unified subscription at very nominal price and keeps on improving the quality as well as ready to face any consequences in near future from any side.
Disclaimer: This post is not meant for any promotion of Reliance Jio and should meant as a general views.