Here’s how much you might have saved on your mobile bills since Jio’s launch

Key Highlights

• After Reliance Jio introduced the freebies scheme in the industry, consumer spends on mobile bill have been significantly lower.
• Consumer spending on tariff plans and mobile bills dropped 26% since Jio’s launch.
• The earnings from the sector in Q1FY18 are estimated to be lower on the back of pricing pressure in the industry.

Newcomer Reliance Jio’s entry into the telecom sector definitely shook things up for the operators who slashed prices to fend off subscribers being wooed by the Mukesh Ambani backed company.

Since September 2016, Reliance Jio had introduced promotional prices and discounts. In the first six months since its launch it did not charge customers for its voice and data services.

Seeing this telecom operators too mimicked the newly founded company and slashed prices of both prepaid as well as postpaid schemes across the board.

Consumer-level wireless spending inclusive of service tax fell to Rs 33,000 crore in March 2017 quarter, a report by Live Mint quoted Kotak Institutional Equities said on Tuesday.

In comparison to a year ago period, consumer spends were at Rs 43,700 crore and Rs 44,600 crore in June 2016.

Mobile bills dropped to Rs 11,600 crore on a quarterly basis or Rs 46,400crore on an annual basis, the report added.

The report added that consumer spending on tariff plans and mobile bills dropped 26% since Jio’s launch.

Jio has also revamped its 4G data plans to extend the validity on most of its prepaid and postpaid tariff plans and increase data available on them as well.

Also Read: Reliance Jio halves prices of new tariff plans

Pricing pressure in the telecom sector continued to be high with anticipation from Jio to roll out another promotional offer. Airtel has now introduced its data rollover plan for postpaid customers, promoting ‘zero data wastage.’

Vodafone also announced Rs 29 recharge pack for data usage at night from 1am to 6am that offered unlimited internet 3G/4G data.

The company also has its Rs 149 and Rs 349 plan still available for customers offering unlimited local STD Vodafone calls along with 2GB data (on 4G handsets only) for the former and 50MB plus 1GB data for 4G handset users on the latter.

As per reports from ICRA, the telecom sector is estimated to be reeling under Rs 4.6 lakh crore worth of debt which will increase to Rs 4.8 lakh crore by the end of this fiscal.

Telcos' revenues were down 15.6% year-on-year with Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) for the  industry which was at Rs 40,831 crore during January-March 2017 quarter, a report by Care Ratings said on July 6.

Also Read: This one chart shows how Reliance Jio brought telecom companies down to their knees

Industry experts have anticipated lower earnings from the sector in Q1 followed by an uptick in Q2 as Jio has finally started charging its customers for its services.

“In Q1FY18, telecom service providers are expected to see strong volume growth across data and voice even as sharp pricing pressure would continue led by heightened promotional activity (bundled plans, customised offers,” analysts of IDFC Abhishek Gupta and Shashi Bhusan said in a report dated July 6.