What's new in Telecom after 31st March 2017?
It would be hard to believe but the free Internet from Jio ends at midnight today 31st March 2017. Each passing day of this month just added to the anxiety of Jio customer’s and many of them could make their mind to enrol for the Jio Prime Membership till today as this is proved by the rush of Jio Customer’s at it’s stores all over India. So, the Jio user’s were left with two option’s after the announcement of services getting paid from 1st April 2017. Either to pay for the data service they opt for from Jio or to stop using the Jio Network. Till now, we have different news about the excat number of users who opted for Jio Prime Membership. (Jio Prime is that we need to pay Rs 99 for recharge and then opt for the Jio plan we want to use as per the requirement. Most of the people have gone for the Rs 303 Jio recharge. Just to recall here, Rs 303 plan would provide 1GB of 4G speed data per day for one month. Moreover, the voice calls and sms are completely free.) I personally feel that Rs 303 recharge is favourite because of the ‘Happy New Year’ offer from Jio, where similar facility was being provided to customer’s.
What’s new in April 2017? Is customer still the king?
The free market economy in India has given numerous options to the Indian buyer. When I was in high school , I could remember people using only landline telephone’s and this was considered a status symbol. If we go just 20 years back, we could see only Ambassador, Fiat and NE Cars moving on roads. But the entry of private players in any sector like Telecom, customer’s can choose from n number of varieties of services even with few bucks in their pockets. Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani’s dream came true with Reliance Rs 500 mobile handset. We could see even the street vendor negotiating with his trade partner and Jio just captured the Indian Internet space by offering free sim cards.
The end of March 2017 will see different strategic results from big corporates in Telecom sector. A few reasons we see are :
- End of Free Internet from Jio ( Although voice calling & sms are still free but this could be offered from other companies as well.)
- The Idea Vodafone Merger which is largely attributed to the Jio Era. Although the actual results cannot be predicted and consolidation process will take some time.But the combined Idea Vodafone customer base is being reported to be the largest and this might lead to the merged entity taking benefits of economies of scale.
- Reliance ,Telenor and Aircel Merger (if complete) will also lead to interesting offers for customer’s
- The New Government’s formed in different states will also affect the Telecom policy’s being followed and in turn affecting the customer base.
- Government Owned BSNL has already launched few lucrative offers for attracting customers including it’s free 1 GB Internet plan for first time BSNL Data users.
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Customer Choice and Spending pattern’s
Although the entry of multiple player’s has increased competition and customer’s are in gain but as excess of anything is not good, the free Internet offers might be affecting personal lives of people as well. The parent’s of children in school would not consider it a wise decision to spend on Internet plan’s even if it is not a big amount. Free access to Internet and huge data limits leads to deviation of children’s mind as well. They might get addicted to porn videos as had been reported earlier. Moreover, too much time being spent on computer or smartphone affects eye sight and pose other health hazards as well.
For Jio, I personally feel Rs 303 is economical but till the time, customer’s don’t have any other option. Jio has already shown the way to other players and there might be another conglomerate planning the same entry in Indian Telecom space. Well, as of now we have to part with our free Jio services and get ready to shell out some money as time to pay back has arrived. So, sit back and enjoy the latest news on Telecom Supermarket India.
