Advantages for Reliance Jio

1. Pan-India 4G network
India was already late to the 3G game. Even when 3G spectrum was auctioned in
2010, a very limited quantity of spectrum was sold to a large number of bidders.
No single private operator was able to get hold of pan-India 3G spectrum in 2010.
Also, since the quantity of spectrum available was so low and the number of
bidders were so high, this led to two drastic effects
1. Every operator was at best able to get just 5 MHz of 3G spectrum in the circle
where they managed to win.
2. Since less spectrum was auctioned and a lot of players were interested,
whoever won paid an astronomical price for the mere 5 MHz of spectrum.
The two combined and gave 3G a rather dull start in India. With max 5 MHz of
spectrum made available to every operator, the 3G capacity and coverage enabled
was very low. Similarly, since an astronomical price was paid for it, most
operators ability to invest in expanding their 3G network had wound down
significantly. This meant that Indians suffered poor 3G speeds and coverage
outside cities was indeed pretty patchy for quite some time.
While most operators were fighting over 3G spectrum, Reliance in 2010 had
quitely and brilliantly acquired Infotel that had managed to win a pan India 20
MHz 4G spectrum. With careful planning and investments, Reliance has
managed to build out a pan India 4G network whose coverage far exceeds the 3G
coverage of current operators. According to reports, Reliance Jio plans to launch
with 70k 4G BTS as compared to 45-50k 3G BTS which Airtel (largest 3G
operator in India) currently has. Also since Reliance has built out a 4G network,
its inherently faster to 3G but the icing on the cake is that Reliance has 20 MHz
spectrum all over India. Most 3G operators in India still have 5 MHz of 3G
spectrum in circles with some operator managing to extend it over to 9-10 Mhz in
certain circles. Im aware that the spectrum of 3G operators is paired and
therefore theoritically an operator having 10 Mhz 3G spectrum has same

quantum of spectrum as that of Reliance Jio but in paired spectrum, a portion of

spectrum is fixed for upload and download, whereas in case of Reliance Jio
spectrum allocation can be dynamic and more priority can be given to download.
This advantage of having 20 MHz of spectrum was perhaps best demonstrated in
Wankhade stadium in Mumbai where Reliance Jio gave out free Wi-Fi and
recorded some rather impressive statistics as mentioned below.

[Source: Trak.in]
As you can see, Reliance Jio has recorded one the best Upload and Download
speeds on an international basis and what better way to test the performance of a
network than a jam packed stadium.
Having access to such a network that has such vast capacity and coverage will
have the potential to radically alter the experience people have with their
smartphones, especially the high end ones such as iPhone 6S or Samsung Galaxy
S6 where the raw performance is so high that an high performance wireless
network has the potential to meaningfully improve the overall experience.

2. Impact on competition
Data rates are rising at a rapid rate all over India. The problem is complicated by
the fact that the top three telecom operators in India have formed a cartel. A
cartel in this case means that these telecom operators unanimously raise their
tariffs to a similar level leaving the end consumer nowhere else to go. The top
three telecom operators in question are Airtel, Vodafone and Idea. Whenever

either of these three raise their tariffs, the rest follow almost immediately. Both G
and 3G tariffs have steadily risen at a rapid rate over the years. Just three to four
years back one could get a 2GB 2G data pack for just Rs 200 making the effective
value of Rs 100 per GB. As of today, in several circles, 1GB of 2G datacosts Rs 175.
This is a 75% increase in tariffs in just 3-4 years.

The reason why the top three telecom operators have been able to raise the rates
of their data packs so much is because the remaining telecom operators in India
have very bad data networks. Especially when it comes to 3G, the strength of the
top three is further broadened from the rest of the industry giving them more
opportunity to increase prices. Only a network like Reliance Jio whose capacity
and coverage are so wide can force the current top three operators to reduce their
rates. So once Reliance Jio finally makes a launch, expect a price war in the data
segment which would last for some time but not forever.

3. Post-FUP speeds
In India, this has been a wide problem that no telecom operator has addressed.
Unlimited data packs are unlimited only for name sake since after a certain limit
the speeds are throttled. I understand the need to throttle speeds. A wireless
network is made of limited spectrum which in turn limits the capacity, if everyone
is allowed to use data at full speeds on an unlimited basis, then the network
quality would come down during peak hours as the network would be congested
and all the network resources would be concentrated at the hands of a few.
Although throttling speeds after a certain limit is a practice that might be
necessary, in India its done at unusable levels by current telcos. Most
telcosthrottle speeds to upto 80 kbps (10 kBps) which is even lower than 2G.
This has made streaming an unviable proposition in India. Generally, most of our
media consumption has happened on an unlimited basis. I mean, when you
watch TV through cable or satellite, you watch it as much as you want by paying a
fixed fee every month. Similarly, in case of radio, you can tune in and listen to
music as much as you want. However when it comes to smartphones, streaming

content is done against a data cap thats fixed. This makes the entire streaming
concept a mess since you need to always keep looking at the data being
consumed.
In US, T-Mobile has come up with Music Freedom and Binge On to make sure
users can stream as much music and video as they want from multiple sources.
Reliance Jio can adopt something similar or else if nothing else they can at least
increase the post FUP speeds to 512 kbps or so which would make the internet
connection slow but meaningful, as current post-FUP speeds are a joke. Also
Reliance Jio is setting up a nationwide network of Wifi hotsposts which can
further help in offloading data from its network.
Again the reason Im betting that Reliance Jio can meaningfully improve its postFUP speed is because they have much more capacity than traditional operators.
Its also possible that Reliance Jio might offer a no-strings attached unlimited
data plan, but that seems less of a possibility given the chances of abuse.
Reliance Jio can follow Airtel like way where streaming data can be exempted for
its own suite of media apps and that seems highly possible given the lax attitude
towards net neutrality by the government.
But one thing is for sure, if Reliance Jio does indeed increase the post-FUP
speeds, others would have to follow and this can jump start the streaming
revolution in India.

Challenges for Reliance Jio

Although I have mentioned the positive effects Reliance Jios entry in India can
have, at the same time it faces quite a lot of challenges as well.

1. Addressable market
Since China and India have nearly identical 4G networks, there has been a steady
flux of 4G devices in India. The circulation of 4G devices has been gradually
improving but the 4G enabled devices right now is still a meagre 1.6%according
to a study conducted by Nokia. This means the core addressable market for
Reliance Jio is still very small and telecom is a game of scale. Its absolutely

mandatory for telecom operators to have good scale to operate profitably unless
ARPUs are abnormally high. Airtel, Idea and Vodafone all have60% + market
share together, whereas in case of Reliance Jio, the core addressable market is
just a mere 1.5% as of now. But its important to know that LTE shipments are
increasing at a very rapid rate with a jump of around 2400% according to
Counterpoint.

2. Ecosystem
Leaving the core addressable market problem, theres also the problem of
Ecosystem. Currently, Reliance Jio has spectrum in three bands namely 1800
MHz band, 2300 MHz band and 800 MHz band. The first two bands cant
penetrate (in terms of coverage) as well as lower 800 MHz band. This 800 Mhz
band is absolutely crucial for Reliance Jio to have a robust coverage. Most recent
4G smartphones in India support 2300 MHz and 1800 MHz, but very few
support the 800 MHz band. How Reliance Jio intends to make handsets support
800 MHz band is yet to be known.

3. Vo-LTE and Vo-Wifi

Since Rjio is a 4G only network, they are planning to carry voice over their LTE
(VoLTE) but as usual very few smartphones currently support it. Also the handoff
between Vo-LTE and Vo-Wifi is very tricky which even lot of international
operators have failed to get right. I understand that calling is now just a feature in
the grand scheme of things people do on a smartphone, but its still a feature
nonetheless and if a network cant reliably place calls, then thats an issue for a lot
of people.