Reliance Jio may extend its free welcome offer as crowds go into frenzy

On the first day of Reliance Jio’s commercial launch, outlets did not have the time to breathe as crowds thronged shops to get their 4G SIM cards and avail the welcome offer.

Retail shops went out of stock as thousands queued up outside Reliance Digital and Xpress outlets for free 4G SIMs from early morning.

Banking on this wave, Mukesh Ambani may extend his welcome offer beyond January 01, 2017, which will also help him in extending the consumer base and shoot up volumes.

If this happens, Reliance Jio’s rivals Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular will have to face tough time and announce attractive plans to retain their loyal customers.

As per industry experts, it is likely that other telecom operators will also slash data and voice call rates.

Ambani, during his AGM, had announced free voice calls for life.

"Its free voice calls and dirt cheap data tariffs offer might not seem sustainable in the long run, but one mustn't forget that Jio derives its strength from RIL's balance sheet, and can easily treat its pricing model as a business development cost to poach quality customers from incumbents over a period of time," an analyst told ET.

Ex-Airtel CEO Sanjay Kapoor told ET Jio's future tariff strategy "is contingent on how many quality customers it acquires by January 1" and how soon it's able to sort out traffic imbalances and reduce potential interconnect payouts to incumbents.