Professional Documents
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Abhishek Chaurasia 2017IMG-002
Abhishek Pandey 2017IMG-004
Abhishek Pratap Singh 2017IMG-005
Aditya Singh 2017IMG-006
Aman Mishra 2017IMG-008
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Worth and Assets
3. History
4. Jio Offers and Timeline
5. Growth of Subscribers
6. Strengths and Weaknesses
7. Opportunities and Threats
8. Challenges
9. Controversies
10. Future Road Ahead
11. References
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1. Introduction
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries
Limited (RIL), is an Indian telecommunications company headquartered in
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. Being India’s largest private sector company,
it is the first telecom operator to hold pan India Unified License. The CEO of
Jio is Mr Mukesh Ambani, an Indian billionaire, and the chairman,
managing director, and largest shareholder of
Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL). As of March 2020,
Mukesh Ambani is the second richest Asian after
Chinese billionaire, Jack Ma.
Jio dominantly is a provider of data-oriented internet
services, with expansion into the digital services
market. Jio owns spectrum in 850 MHz and 1,800 MHz
bands in India's 22 circles, and also owns pan-India
licensed 2,300 MHz spectrum. The spectrum is valid
until 2035.1 The company also trades in electronic devices such as feature
phones, smartphones and internet dongles. It is worth noting that Jio
doesn’t offer 2G or 3G services, but instead uses only voice over LTE to
provide voice service on its 4G network.
2. Worth and Assets 1 2
Revenue ₹11,679 crore (US$1.6 billion) (Q4 2019)
1
[Pan India 2016 spectrum holding data sheet (updated), Telecom Talk, retrieved 25 January 2019]
2
["RIL Q4 2019 Reports". Reliance industries. 14 May 2019.]
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3. History
● The company was registered in Ambawadi, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) on
15 February 2007 as Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited.
● In June 2010, Reliance Industries (RIL) bought a 95% stake in Infotel
Broadband Services Limited (IBSL) for ₹4,800 crore (US$670 million).
● Although unlisted, IBSL was the only company that won broadband
spectrum in all 22 circles in India in the 4G auction that took place
earlier that year.
● Later continuing as RIL's telecom subsidiary, Infotel Broadband
Services Limited was renamed as Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited
(RJIL) in January 2013.
● The 4G services were launched internally on 27 December 2015.
● The company commercially launched its 4G services on 5 September
2016.
● In the first month itself, Jio gained around 16 million subscribers.
source: TELECOM REGULATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA(TRAI), Press Release No.117/2016, 9th
December, 2016
4.Jio & Offers Timeline
Jio has been notoriously known for pushing predatory offers one after the
other, forcing other providers to keep up. While seen as an unfair move by
many, it also normalized the price of data as a commodity in India. Finally,
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the nation had cheap, fast internet available to all. Here is a brief timeline
of milestones of Jio.
SEPTEMBER 2016
Reliance Jio Welcome Offer
The first offer to come our way, the Reliance Jio Welcome Offer was
announced when the company first launched operations in September
2016. With this, the operator provided users with 4GB of data, 100 SMSs
and unlimited calling per day. Shortly after the offer was launched, Jio
competitors launched offers of their own, providing calls and data at
heavily discounted rates. Many attempted to match Reliance Jio’s data
rates of Rs. 50 per GB, but this did not stop customers from signing up for
the new telecom upstart in droves.
DECEMBER 2016
Reliance Jio Happy New Year Offer
The operator announced the Jio Happy New Year Offer a full month
ahead of the cutoff date, extending free services for another three months.
Under the Jio Happy New Year Offer, customers could get free services till
March 31, getting 1GB per day. Users could purchase Booster Packs.
This offer came as a jolt to those who expected Reliance Jio to start
charging for services starting January 1. This meant that customers would
get free services till March, and other operators would have to continue
with the subsidised prepaid and postpaid plans to keep their own
customers away from Jio. Packs with free calls and data packs offering
extremely low rates became the norm for the industry, and several major
players started giving free data to ensure customers stick to their
platforms.
With the offer came complaints against it from other telcos. The Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) asked Jio to explain how the Happy
New Year Offer does not violate the rule against promotional offers after 90
days.
In response, the operator cited the lowered free data cap of 1GB per day,
and paid Booster Packs, which the regulator deemed sufficient for
continuing the largely-free services for 3 months. Against this clean chit,
rivals Airtel and Idea appealed to the Telecom Disputes Settlement and
Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT).
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MARCH 2017
Jio Prime and Jio Summer Surprise Offer
With the Happy New Year Offer coming to a close soon, Reliance Industries
Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced a new subscription service named
Jio Prime, which would provide members several benefits. The Jio Prime
subscription cost Rs. 99 for the whole year, and with a Rs. 303 recharge you
could get 1GB data per day, along with all the other freebies.
However, users had to sign up with Prime and buy the recharge before the
services went paid on April 1. However, it turned out that Jio wasn't done
with freebies. On March 31, just a day ahead of going paid, the company
announced the Summer Surprise Offer, which gave users the free services
for three months on recharge of Rs. 303 or higher. The Summer Surprise
offer was welcomed by Prime customers, but was met with criticism from
rivals. Within a week of being announced, the offer was pulled by the
operator following a TRAI order stating that it violated regulatory
framework, but sign-ups for the Prime service continued for a few days
more, even after it was cancelled.
FEBRUARY 2017
Jio reaches 100 million subscribers
This is the fastest growth ever for a telecom service provider. Jio grew
faster than Facebook, Twitter or any other social media platform.
APRIL 2017
Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan Offer
Barely had the Summer Surprise offer been cancelled that Jio rolled out
yet another new offer. The new Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan offer. With
subsidised services continuing till June, it would seem tough times would
continue for incumbent telecom operators, who would have to bleed
money to continue their own prepaid and postpaid plans to beat Reliance
Jio.
OCTOBER 2017
Jio reaches 130 million subscribers
JULY 2017
JioPhone launched at AGM
On July 21, 2017, Mukesh Ambani had announced JioPhone, the first 4G
feature phone in the world. Till the launch of JioPhone, Reliance Jio had
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served as the service provider but it wanted to be both provider for
network as well as device. The launch of JioPhone was aimed directly at
tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Needless to say, The JioPhone became an instant
best-seller in the country.
JUNE 2018
Jio crosses 200 million subscribers
AUGUST 2018
Jio launches JioFiber
Jio began to test a new triple play fiber to the home service known
tentatively as Jio GigaFiber, including broadband internet with speeds
ranging from 100 to 1000 Mbit/s, as well as television and landline
telephone services.
DECEMBER 2019
Jio crosses 300 million subscribers
APRIL 2020
Facebook buys 9.9% stake in Jio worth ₹43,574 crore
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5. Growth of Subscribers
Jio is the only telecommunication company that has had monotonically
increasing subscriber count since its inception. The following graph is a
monthly subscriber count v/s month comparison of top telecom operators
of India. It is a testament of Jio’s efforts to maintain and increase its
customer base over the years.
The following graph shows Jio’s net addition of new customers every
month. Needless to say, it never reported negative numbers indicating Jio
never lost any customers more than they gained every month. Here’s a
comparison against Airtel, Jio biggest rival.
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6. Strengths and Weaknesses
6.1 Strengths of Reliance Jio
● Diverse products
○ 4G Jio Sim (base product)
○ Jio smartphones
○ Jio Fiber
○ Subscription based services like JioCinema, JioSaavn, JioCloud
etc.
● Jio competitors did not take Jio seriously when it was launched.
○ Jio caused a lot of small telecom firms to close shop.
○ It is the reason why Vodafone India and Idea Limited merged
to be able to survive and compete with Jio.
○ Every telecom company now offers products at a fraction of
cost than what they used to. If they had done that in 2015, Jio
would’ve never become an industry leader and other telecom
companies would’ve never lost a significant customer base.
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● The entire AGR fiasco played out in favor of Reliance Jio
○ Jio competitors need to shell out much more ammunition
from their war chests to pay their AGR dues. As Jio is less than
half a decade old, it’s AGR dues were significantly less as
compared to Bharti Airtel or Vodafone-Idea.
○ Because the entire sector is low on cash (Jio because of its
stretched customer acquisition strategy, and others because
of mounting AGR dues), the entire sector is now acting as a
group and increasing prices together.
○ This way Jio will slowly be able to improve the health of its
balance sheet without losing customers.
● In an attempt to give too many freebies, a lot of them are below
average
○ JioCinema
■ The content on JioCinema does not stand a chance
before streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime,
Hotstar.
■ Apple and Disney are looking to enter the streaming
market. Many Indian platforms are coming with original
content which JioCinema lacks.
■ JioCinema had a tie up with Disney which helped them
a little, but as Disney is going forward with Hotstar,
JioCinema’s future looks bleak.
○ JioSaavn
■ Too many ads and the way they interrupt ruins the entire
music experience, forcing people to either pay (in which
case it's a premium service) or switch to other apps.
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■ Spotify’s ads for example are posters or samples of
music, which presents ads without ruining the music
experience.
● Security Concerns
○ Jio has become the largest telecom as per customer base,
implying it has access to a lot of personal data.
○ Reliance Jio has been subjected to a data breach in 2017 which
resulted in confidential data of over 120 million active
subscribers being posted online, including name, phone
number, email-Id and in some cases, even Aadhaar number.
○ The site was later taken down and Imran Chippa was arrested,
but some sources call it one of the biggest data breaches.
○ Facebook, the latest investor in Jio, has a really bad image in
this area after it “sold” customer data in the Cambridge
Analytica scandal.
● Future Expansion
Reliance JIO is looking forward to some future expansion by
launching 5G and 6G Technology at reasonable prices. It is also
expected to cover up the foreign market and neighbouring regions
of the Indian subcontinent in the upcoming years.
● Broadband Services
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Reliance is focusing on providing Fastest broadband service with
speed up to 1Gbps. JIO Giga Fiber which is a broadband service
offered via Optical Fiber. This broadband service could be a game
changer in the field of Broadband.
● Applications
Reliance Jio has VoLTE which has a lot of scope in terms of
bandwidth. Thus, they can offer apps to customers which are
chargeable or even free initially and pay per use later.
They are focusing on areas like e-commerce and the recent deal
between Reliance JIO and Facebook clarifies their future move, this
transaction could possibly help Facebook find new ways to monetise
WhatsApp and make a dent in the enterprise business where its
competitors like Amazon and Google are ahead.
Apart from India JIO can focus on expanding in other countries as
well.
As they came up with their Feature Phone [JIO Phone], they can
focus on Smartphones as well. With competitive pricing, Aggressive
marketing, also with the integration of high-end specifications,
importance on good cameras, and classy design stuffed into the
budget mobiles which can help them to penetrate the market.
Also, there is a good opportunity in Gadgets Market like Smart TV,
Smart Band, Smart Speakers where Reliance Jio can focus.
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● Television and Set UP Box
As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, in the year 2017, set
top box user base stood at 67.56 million so there is a huge market to
penetrate. Reliance Jio came up with JIO Fiber Set up box which is
different then conventional Setup box. So they have a good
opportunity to expand in this field.
● R
emoval of free services
Jio currently is associated with a lot of freebies. Once these are
removed there may be a drop in sales for the company.
● Customer Loyalty
Customers preferred JIO because of its low pricing then other
telecom operators so if they will increase the price of their services
there is a chance of losing the customers. Customer loyalty is a big
challenge.
Reliance Jio has been embroiled in a lot of controversies from the
time it started, like Data breaching, auction of spectrum and using
the Prime Minister’s picture for advertising. This all has created a
negative impact on the Brand Image of the Company.
Many of the strategies adopted by Reliance Jio such as the low
pricing, free bandwidth and market penetration strategies have
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been showcased as unethical and this may affect the goodwill of the
business in the long run.
● Government policies
Predatory pricing is when an operator with over 30 percent market
share in any circle drops prices in order to gain an upper hand over
other operators in that circle. TRAI regulations say being found guilty
of predatory pricing could lead to a penalty of up to Rs 50 lakh per
circle. This prevents Jio from further slashing prices.
Many of the strategies adopted by Reliance Jio such as the low
pricing, free bandwidth and market penetration strategies have
been showcased as unethical and this may affect the goodwill of the
business in the long run.
● L
oyal customer base of existing players
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8.Challenges Ahead
● Addressable market
During the Launch of Jio, 4G devices were still in their initial phase in
India. At that time the number of 4G devices was merely 1.6%,
according to a study. This states that the target market for Jio was
still very small and telecom is a game of scale. It is essential for
telecom companies to maintain a good scale for profits.
● Ecosystem
Reliance Jio had three spectrums 800 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2300 MHz.
The last two bands can’t penetrate and had poor coverage as
compared to the coverage of 800 MHz. The problem faced by Jio was
most of the 4G smartphones were made to work to 1800 and 2300
MHz and very less number of smartphones were compatible with
800 MHz.
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Telecom companies mainly rely on two sources for their revenue:
Voice and Data. With the rise of VoLTE technology, the cost of voice
service is negligible. With its nationwide LTE network, Jio planned on
providing a free voice service, This meant they had to rely only on
data for revenue generation.
● Stiff competition
As stated by Reliance Jio that it would take them nearly 3 years to
attain 100% coverage. But this 3 years would give their competitors
like Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices and
Aircel. At that time 75% of the market was controlled by Vodafone,
Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel. To penetrate the market against
well-established players was a huge task.
9. Controversies
● Alleged subscriber data breach
There was a breach in Jio,s customer data on July 10, 2017 and the data was
leaked on magicapk,com. The website was shut down soon after the
reports of the breach came forward.
● Call Drop
More than 12 crore calls were failing between Jio and other service
providers due to the lesser number of Points of Interconnections(PoI).
Required number of PoI is 4000-5000 whereas Jio was provided only
400-500 PoIs. This resulted in the heavy call drop rate of about 80-90%
whereas accepted rate is 0.5%.
● Auction for Spectrum
There had been questions on how acquired the license. The license was
originally bought by Infotel Broadband Services Private Limited (IBSPL) in
2010 and it is alleged that IBSPL forged bank guarantee documents to win
the auction and later IBSPL was acquired by Jio.
● PM Modi on Jio Ad Campaign
A day after the announcement of Jio, most of the national newspapers
were filled with full front page Jio ads having PM Modi.“In the journey of
time, there come a few life-changing moments. Our honourable Prime
Minister’s inspiring vision of a Digital India is one such movement. Jio is
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dedicated to realising our Prime Minister’s Digital India vision for 1.2 billion
Indians. Jio Digital Life will give the power of data to each Indian, to fulfil
every dream and collectively take India to the global digital leadership. . . ,”
read a paragraph just below the image of PM Modi in his dark blue jacket,
which is incidentally the same colour as Jio’s logo. Many opposition leaders
then called PM Modi a stooge of the richest man.
● Favouritism by TRAI
TRAI has been alleged of being biased on taking decisions. The CEO of
Vodafone Group once pointed out that all the decisions taken by TRAI in
the past two years have favoured Jio Infocomm. This adds to the bitterness
of the old players and Ambani owned Reliance Jio.
● False Advertisements
Bharti Airtel accused Jio of false advertisements and took the matter to the
Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI). Airtel claimed that Jio is
misleading viewers with its claim of “best network and the world’s largest
mobile data network” and offering “best entertainment” and “best
postpaid offers” in its advertisement starring actor Deepika Padukone.
Airtel put the point that Jio had no clarification and third-party data to
back them up.
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10. Future Road Ahead
● Facebook – JIO deal:
Facebook has bought a 9.9% stake in Reliance Jio for $5.7 bn. This deal
helped Jio to reduce its debt and also values Reliance Jio platforms among
top 5 listed companies by market capitalization. The goal is to enable
business opportunities for the business of all sizes, but especially for more
than 60 million small businesses across the country. Concurrent with the
investment, Jio Platforms, Reliance Retail, and Facebooks’s WhatsApp
service have also entered into a commercial partnership agreement to
further accelerate the Reliance Retail’s new commerce business on
JioMart platform using WhatsApp and to support small business on
WhatsApp.
In less than four years, Jio has brought more than 388 million people
online, fueling the creation of innovative new enterprises and connecting
people in new ways. With this, Reliance Jio has proclaimed its vision of not
only being a telecom player, but evolving as an end-to-end digital
company catering to the mass market in India, and being the biggest
player in India’s digital economy. Both the companies, through this
partnership, intend to roll out a commerce platform, JioMart. With the
capabilities and the scale the duo are aiming at, this could turn out to be
the biggest platform for commerce in India. This partnership is not only
relevant and complementary for both companies’ vision and ambitions for
this market, but also rich with implications -- both at macro and micro
levels for various players across the industry and operating in India.
● Haptik
Haptik is a startup offering conversational Artificial Intelligence(AI). Jio
bought 87% of the stake in 2019 for nearly 700 crores. Haptik’s technology
will help build Jio technologies like Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana,
Google Assistant. Jio aims to further boost the digital ecosystem and
provide Indian users conversational AI-enabled devices with multilingual
capabilities in which voice interactivity will be the primary mode of
interaction.
● Jio - Microsoft deal
Reliance Jio has entered into a long term agreement with Microsoft to
accelerate the digital transformation with the formation of new data
centres across the country. The deal was signed in August 2019. Jio is
setting up a pan-India Edge Computing and Content Distribution Network
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starting with 10000 nodes which will be powered by Microsoft’s Azure
Cloud platform.
The two sides have entered into a long term pact to accelerate the digital
transformation in the country with the launch of new cloud data centres,
to ensure that more organisations can access the tools and platforms they
need to build their own digital capability.
● Jio Ecommerce platform- JioMart
RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani moved closer to creating an e-commerce
giant for India, as it is to set up a $24 billion digital-services holding
company that would become the main vehicle in his ambition to
dominate the country’s internet shopping space.
The board of Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd. approved a proposal to put
1.08 trillion rupees ($15 billion) into the fully owned subsidiary, which will in
turn invest that amount in Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., the conglomerate’s
telecommunications venture. A series of capital transfers would make Jio,
which already has capital of 650 billion rupees, almost debt free by March
2020, October 25.
The move made by Reliance Jio is an indication that it is building the
online shopping platform to take on the e-commerce giants like Amazon
and Flipkart. The reorganization of Jio’s capital structure is intended at
consolidating all digital assets under one entity, reducing debt at this
entity and streamlining the structure to make it attractive for eventual
monetization.
With the new holding firm, RIL is also readying the businesses for an initial
public offering, which is expected in five years. Since Jio’s 4G network
rolled out in 2016, the carrier has vaulted to the top in India with more than
350 million users. RIL has also been stitching together a network of
partners through acquisitions and stake purchases to build a backbone for
its e-commerce plans. RIL launched JioMart in January, 2020. As of now,
JioMart is live in three locations in Mumbai.
● Jio Productions
Reliance Jio is reportedly setting up its own production house to create
original web series and short films for Jio subscribers. The move could be
significant considering the growing popularity of shows produced by
over-the-top media services providers like Netflix and Amazon Prime
Video.
● Jio 5G services
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Reliance Jio is ready to launch 5G in India as it was said by RIL owner
Mukesh Ambani. But frequency spectrum has not yet been allotted by
TRAI due to ongoing trials.
● Jio fixed line phone
The Jio fixed line phone will offer unlimited calling service. The subscribers
will have to opt for the company's landline service in order to make calls.
The Jio Home Phone will be activated through GigaFiber, using
JioGigaHub. Once the Jio Home Phone is activated, users will be assigned
an eight-digit landline number.
11. References
1. https://techpp.com/2015/12/09/reliance-jio/#Challenges_for_Reliance_
Jio L
ast updated on 27-Dec-15.
2. https://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/The-problems-with-Re
liance%E2%80%99s-Jio/article15422347.ece Last Updated on
01-Nov-2016.
3. https://medium.com/@vaibhavgulati/3-immediate-challenges-for-rel
iance-jio-41adc519c78f Article published on Sep 1, 2016 .
4. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/companies/many-challenges
-lie-ahead-for-reliance-jio/article7310144.ece Updated on January 24,
2018
5. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332529159_A_Study_Repor
t_On_Reliance_Jio_Infocomm_Limited Report published on April
2019
6. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/jio-
data-security-breach-greed-for-free-recharge-led-chippa-to-breach-
rjio-data-say-police/articleshow/59695915.cms Article published on 21
July, 2017
7. Pan India 2016 spectrum holding data sheet (updated),
http://telecomtalk.info/india-spectrum-data-sheet/134245/, Telecom
Talk, retrieved 25 January 2019
8. "RIL Q4 2019 Reports".
http://www.ril.com/getattachment/b9a51ff7-41b4-421c-bf35-c589cbc
66eb6/Financial%20Presentation%20-%20Q4%20Results.aspx,
Reliance industries. 14 May 2019.
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