Tariff hikes will strengthen the telecom sector in the long term: Jio Platform's Anshuman Thakur

Jio’s 5G services is free to users who subscribe to certain plans at no additional cost, aimed to encourage 5G consumption on the network and people to adopt more 5G, the official added

The recent round of telecom tariff hikes will strengthen the Indian telecom sector in the longer term but may result in some transient impact on consumer behaviour, Jio Platforms’ Senior Vice President Anshuman Thakur said in the post-earning presentation on July 19.

Jio recently announced its new unlimited plans effective July 3, 2024. These new plans imply a tariff increase of 13 -25 percent compared to previous plans.

“As expected, other operators have also raised tariffs. Overall, industry tariff levels have gone up. There may be some transient impact, but in longer terms, this is going to be good for the overall telecom industry and help build a premier digital society and strengthen the sector,” Thakur said.

ALSO READ: Jio Platforms Q1 profit increases 12% to Rs 5,698 crore

Jio’s 5G services is free to users who subscribe to certain plans at no additional cost. “This is to encourage 5G consumption on the network and people to adopt more 5G,” he said.

The senior executive said Jio has a “very good spectrum” bank that fulfils requirements across Jio's services, including 4G, 5G mobile, and home broadband.

“We were very focused on acquiring more spectrum only in cases where we had seen demand go up, the data consumption going up and therefore, to ensure that the customer service never suffers, we added more spectrum in Bihar and West Bengal in 1800 MHz band at total costs of Rs 974 crore. So we were very focused on looking at spectrum, which we needed just to ensure that our customers always get the best offering, he said.

Jio’s spectrum footprint across bands is now at 26,801 MHz.

He said Jio is the only telco running 5G across the low band [700 Mhz], mid-band [3300 Mhz and high-band [26 Ghz]. “This gives us unique advantages like carrier aggregation and standalone network.”

Thakur said that Jio has been making inroads in key verticals in the enterprise space and has started displacing competition.

“We are now successfully displacing competition wherever we are getting an opportunity. Enterprise deals tend to have longer tenure. So we have to wait for opportunities where these come up for renewal and then make our entry,” he said, adding that Jio has expanded its wallet share beyond connectivity.

Jio is also building a partner ecosystem to tap into enterprise opportunities, especially in specialised sectors where access through the partner ecosystem is easier and faster.

He revealed that BFSI remains a strong vertical for Jio's enterprise business.

"We have tied up with some BFSI clients to do more beyond connectivity and some enterprise offering.”

Disclosure: Moneycontrol is a part of the Network18 group. Network18 is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.