Jio may put an end to the tariff war with incumbent operators in 2018, and raise data prices next year, according to a new report. This step from Jio would come after over a year of discounted 4G data that have seen the lowest-ever tariffs in the country. While this helped the country go to the top of data consumption chart, it meant an intense war to retain consumers in the telecom industry. We saw an indication of the same in October, when Jio raised the prices of its popular prepaid and postpaid plans in Diwali; the Jio Prime subscription service, which promises the best offers to customers, will end or be renewed in April 2018.
Moreover, riding on the Jio wave, 2018 will see India gradually move away from being a developing 4G country, overcoming the hiccups necessary to become a full-grown 4G power, a new report by OpenSignal says. The London-based firm that specialises in crowdsourced wireless coverage mapping all over the world said that Jio's market entry kicked off an intense price war in the telecom scene in India, resulting in offerings of cheaper LTE services from all operators, driving more consumers to 4G than ever before.
"The trend will continue next year. Whether Jio remains the huge dominant driver in 4G growth remains to be seen. After a year of free and steeply discounted data pricing, Jio may make 2018 the year it raises prices. That could level the playing field for India's operators," said[1] Andrea Toth from OpenSignal[2].
"Jio's widespread 4G access, along with its at-first free and later heavily discounted data and voice plans, quickly won the hearts - and wallets - of more than 100 million mobile users across the country," Toth added.
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