Skip to main content

The Telecom Price Hike.

Ok. Now Jio has joined the party with Airtel and Vi by increasing the mobile tariff price. Does this mean "party over" for customers?




While people are grieving the price hike, let's try to understand this from the market perspective. All companies operate for profit. They provide services and advertise them with a capitalistic mindset. Telecom prices always drop when new technology is being adopted and prices hike when it's being developed. You'll understand this if you take a look back. 2 major events changed the telecom industry in India. One was the 2G scam, back in 2008, which led to a mass cancellation of telecom licenses. The 2nd one is Reliance Jio's entry into the market in 2016. Since then, the cost of data has been relatively low until the 1st price hike in 2019. 

All companies intend to earn more average revenue per user (ARPU). It's important for them to pay off their debts and to invest in further expansion and projects. In today's scenario, it's 5G. As the world is adopting 5G at a rapid pace, Indian companies need to catch up. They require capital and for that and they should be either earned or borrowed. This price was coming; it's long-expected. The CoViD 19 pandemic has delayed this legitimate price-hike by almost 2 years. How long do you think you'll keep getting the "cheapest data" in the world? It'll mean a huge revenue loss for the telecoms. 

If the economic side is considered, it is believed that this price hike will contribute to a marginal hike in base inflation. We have to wait and see what awaits us. Fingers crossed.

Now coming to the question; Is it "party over" for the customers? Well, kind of. Of course, we can expect a marginal drop in price when 5G officially rolls out, but the tariffs are not expected to drop any further in the recent future. What customers can expect from the service providers is better quality. 

If you have been observing the market closely, Airtel announced its premium "ecosystem" service called "Airtel Black". It consolidates the bill for a family using say, airtel sim cards, DTH, fibre or any combination of their services. Companies have understood that as the variety in services grows, the "ecosystem" approach is what is going to retain their customers. Mind you, "customer retention" is an extremely important aspect of the success of any company. There's a reason why Apple Inc. is so much successful than its rivals. "Airtel Black" is seen as Bharti Airtel's first push towards an ecosystem. When Jio isn't explicitly showcasing a similar approach, if you are smart enough to grab the subtle traces that Jio has left along the way, like; integration of all its apps within the My Jio app, promoting Jio Mart discounts and many more; I see a bigger push towards building a whole ecosystem from scratch. Fingers crossed. I'm hopeful for the future. I'm optimistic that despite the price hike, the companies will strive to provide quality and satisfaction to their customers. 

**The reason I've used the word "ecosystem" so much is because of its importance in the tech world. It can demand a 5000-word separate blog to understand.**

Thank you for reading this.

Leave your thoughts and let me know what you think of this. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ChatGPT: My Opinion.

I have a  few thoughts on ChatGPT. It was released back in November 2022 by Open AI. It’s a chatbot that uses AI to fetch answers to your questions. I have no idea how it works, if you’re an expert, consider enlightening me with a simplified explanation of what’s going on there. For the first time, I tried out ChatGPT to get a not-so-important assignment done. It was cool, like, I completed the work in a fraction of the time that it’d have taken otherwise. And I was very quick to weigh the advantages and repercussions that it could have on students and professionals. Talking of the good stuff, it’s pretty accurate. It gives reasonably good facts in a very well-assorted manner that even a layman would understand. The results are acceptably concise and educative enough. One can just copy and paste into a word file and submit it, that’s how good it is. And these things keep learning from their past experiences, so it’s bound to get better over time. On the flip side of the coin, it is...
1 comment
Read more

The Immovable Force: Cheteshwar Pujara.

When you say resilience, right now, in the world of cricket, there's only one name that comes to my mind: Cheteshwar Pujara. Born in Gujarat, he was exposed to cricket at a very young age. His father used to play for Saurashtra in Ranji Trophy and domestic cricket. In a world that appreciates 10 over and 20 over, quicker formats of cricket, which offer no time to settle down and play an inning, where the word "resilience" is non-existent, long-format cricket is being kept alive by players like him.       Che-Pu made his test debut against Australia in a home series back in 2010. I still remember watching that series where the Australian bowling attack was ruthless. Top-order batsmen like VVS Laxman and Sehwag were getting hit badly and got injured. Pujara came in and got out very soon. He made only 4 or 5 runs that day. In the 2nd innings, MSD had promoted him up the order, and he scored a scintillating 70-odd. That was a knock of pure grit and determination. He piss...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Vogue of Alcohol Consumption

I came across an article that read that women have overtaken men in alcohol consumption. That might have reactions like an old Punjabi uncle feeling bad for men who don't drink, or maybe men who don't drink enough, while on the flip side, we might as well have feminists celebrating the news. The article also read that this habit is most common among youths between 20-40. Many men and women (also boys and girls) are falling prey to alcohol consumption for a variety of reasons like peer pressure, handling stress, to feel good and most importantly being modern and fashionable. I have no idea how drinking alcohol is considered fashionable or modern. When I say to people that I don't drink, they reply "waste daa nee or naa laik hai tu", meaning "you are useless" in Tamil and Hindi respectively. That has a few implications. See, that age band is when most women are mentally and physically agile enough to bear foetuses and give birth. The consumption of alcohol...
Post a Comment
Read more