The broadband services market in India could see another round of price war with the company said to be eyeing a Diwali launch of its much-anticipated broadband services in the country.
According to reports, Reliance Jio Infocomm is working towards a commercial launch of its home broadband services around Diwali. The offers it has in store for consumers could trigger a price war similar to what was witnessed in the mobile segment following Jio’s entry.
A TOI report, citing people in the know of developments, said that the base pack JioFiber’s home broadband service is slated to stand at 100 GB of data for Rs 500. Compared with the current plans offered by incumbents, this amounts to roughly double the data at half the price.
Airtel is currently offering customers 60 GB data for Rs 899, though with the bonus data this is extended to 750 GB data free for a period of one year.
Airtel’s Rs 1099 plan, which has 40Mbps speed, offers 90 GB data per month, with 1000 GB data free for one year. Airtel’s Rs 1,299 plan is the one that offers 100 Mbps speeds, with 125 GB data per month, and 1000 GB data free for the period of one year.
However the free data offer is limited to the NCR region. Other broadband providers like ACT have started offering 1GB per second internet speeds in the city of Hyderabad with 1TB download limit at a rental price of Rs 5,999. ACT has also expanded operations to Delhi and is offering 100 Mbps speeds.
According to the report, Jio plans to expand its free trial offer starting June, a process which will culminate with the commercial launch of broadband services in September or October. There has been no official word from Jio in this regard yet.
The JioFiber network is capable of carrying data speeds up to 100 Mbps. It is currently being rolled out in at least 10 large cities, including all metros, in addition to Delhi's satellite towns of Noida and Gurgaon.
As per the person cited above, the company is identifying mega clusters such as high-rise residential apartments and commercial establishments as a part of its phase-II expansion programme to connect 100 locations by December, besides mulling to allow subscribers a Wi-Fi router at an affordable refundable deposit.
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), BSNL has nearly 10 million users in the home broadband segment as of March 31, followed by Bharti at about 1.95 million.
