Reliance Jio user base has slipped drastically in terms of subscription. According to a report released by Motilal Oswal, the main reason for the decline in the customer growth of Reliance Jio is mainly attributed to the recent demonetization of currencies by the NDA government.
The decision to ban old currency notes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 denomination could be the main factor for the rapid slump of customers. After huge chaos soon after the launch by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani, the subscriber growth has slipped to less than 50 percent.
People standing in banks instead of Reliance Stores
Even though there is no direct involvement between demonetization and sale of Reliance Jio SIMs, the ban has forced people to stand in queues in front of the banks to exchange old currencies. The report specifically states that for the common man it is important to keep currencies in hand rather than Jio SIM card.
Reliance Jio likely to extend free preview offer
The Oswal report also reveals the fact that the company is unlikely to meet the 100 million subscriber target by the end of 2016 due to adverse economic conditions in India. Hence, the possibility to extend the Welcome offer to March 2017 is a huge possibility. This is because people will again stand in queues to buy Jio SIM after the currency problem is solved in January.
Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given 50 days time to erase corruption and Black Money, we can expect normalcy to return from January 1, 2017.
Rapid growth in mobile gaming due to Reliance Jio
According to industry analysts, people mainly make use of the Reliance Jio as a secondary service to leverage maximum benefits of free voice and data. There has been a rapid growth in the mobile gaming segment after the introduction of Jio 4G service. Hence, an extension in the Welcome Offer will be a positive signal for the sudden spike in the customer base before the end of Q1 2017.
Meanwhile, poor service, slow connectivity, and decreased download speed are the main factors behind the sudden decline in the user count of Jio. The customers have complained over telephone and social media platforms about regular call drops and poor voice quality.
According to data published on the report, large sections of JIO customer have expressed serious apprehensions about the drop in the speed during the last two months. Recently, the regulator TRAI had directed Reliance JIO to fix December 3 as the cut-off date for issuing free Reliance Jio SIM cards under the free preview offer.
The latest news is that Reliance is planning to start door delivery of JIO SIM cards in few select cities, to begin with.
3 Comments