The telco industry underwent a massive change after the entry of Reliance Jio, putting giants like Airtel and Vodafone on the edge of their seats. As the dust settles, the focus seems to be shifting to a new area – home broadband.
Airtel is already leading the charts in the broadband sector, but news of Reliance Jio's 100Mbps JioFiber or GigaFiber imminent release has created some waves. Learning from the past, Airtel is taking charge this time around and offering some great deals on home broadband plans ahead of Jio's FTTH broadband rollout.
Reliance Jio's 100Mbps speed Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband is still in the testing phase and the commercial rollout date is a mystery. Airtel is laying a strong groundwork ahead of Jio's entry into the broadband arena, so the telco doesn't face the same fate as it did in the 4G LTE-led telecom race.
Airtel's latest offer is hard to beat, even for a bold company like Reliance Jio. The largest telco provider launched "Unlimited Internet Offer" under which it is giving a bonus of 1000GB data for 1 year. The offer is applicable to new customers who signed up for Airtel broadband on or after May 16.
Airtel's latest offer is hard to beat, even for a bold company like Reliance Jio. The largest telco provider launched "Unlimited Internet Offer" under which it is giving a bonus of 1,000GB data for 1 year. The offer is applicable to new customers who signed up for Airtel broadband on or after May 16.
Airtel has 4 plans – all of which are entitled for 1,000GB data bonus. But it is exclusively available to customers in Delhi-NCR region. There is no word on whether the offer will be expanded to other cities.
Airtel broadband plans eligible for 1,000GB data include Rs 1,099, Rs 1,299, Rs 1,499 and Rs 1,799 rentals. The base plan available on Airtel with a rental of Rs 899 also offers users 750GB data free for a year.
These offers by Airtel come shortly after the company announced its new home broadband plans with 100 percent more data benefits for the same monthly rentals. As per the new change, users get 60GB data for Rs 899, 90GB for Rs 1,099, 125GB for Rs 1,299, 160GB for Rs 1,499 and 220GB for Rs 1,799.
The lowest broadband plan offers 16Mbps speed, while the Rs 1,099 plan comes with 40Mbps speed. The remaining data plans get 100Mbps V-Fiber broadband speeds.
Other players, including Tata DoCoMo and Act Fibernet are awfully silent at this point. It is possible these rivals are assessing the market trend before making a move.
The broadband prices offered by these providers are already competitive, and shouldn't have much of an impact when Jio finally arrives with its disruptive deals. But that's something entirely unforeseen, and Jio might make it hard for Act and DoCoMo as it did to BSNL, Aircel and other players in the telecom industry.
