Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio is ranked 17th among the world’s most innovative companies in the world, according to a report. In RIL’s (Reliance Industries Limited) annual report released yesterday, the company said that Reliance Jio has been ranked as India’s top most innovative company and the 17th most innovative in the world by American business magazine Fast Company’s 50 Most Innovative Companies list in 2018. Notably, started in September-16, the company has garnered an extensive subscriber base of 186.6 million, data from annual report showed.
“Reliance Jio is the largest mobile network in the world in terms of mobile data traffic with total mobile data consumption of over 5 Exabyte in the financial quarter ending March 2018,” the annual report said. The company’s aggressive pricing has led to pain for other telecom rivals Airtel and Idea. Notably, a recent Jefferies report said that the sharp discount launched by Jio would make incumbents respond to it which may further cut average revenue per user (ARPU) for Bharti and Idea.
“India’s digital services market is continuing its exponential growth trajectory with Jio expanding its coverage and further deepening in existing areas to achieve 99 per cent population coverage during FY 2018-19,” Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), parent firm of Jio, said in its annual report.
After the company launched a its latest scheme to provide postpaid services at Rs 199 offering 25GB of data and unlimited voice and SMS, Jefferies said that the other incumbents could fee heightened pressure. “This is at 50 per cent discount to comparable packs by incumbents and 60 per cent discount to postpaid ARPUs. We have been concerned on Postpaid as it contributes 20 per cent plus of revenues. With the sharp discount launch by Jio we expect incumbents to also respond and thus expect further decline in ARPU for Bharti and Idea. This is likely Jio’s first offer aimed at enterprise market. Remain cautious on the sector,” the Jefferies report said.
According to a report by IFC (Institute for Competitiveness), within a short span of six months since Reliance Jio’s launch, India had become the highest mobile data user in the world, consuming over 1 billion GB of data every month compared to 200 million GB earlier. “Merely by reducing data prices even the most conservative estimates show that due to Jio’s entry the annual financial savings to the consumer has been to the tune of Rs 60,000 crores,” the report said.
