New Broadband Plans From JioFiber And Airtel Xstream Might Benefit Consumers: Report

The tariff war between internet providers is likely to help end-users as prices are decreased by 40 percent. In fact, the new plans launched by both JioFiber and Airtel Xstream will increase the reach of the internet in the country.

Besides, the new move might help all customers as they will get data at affordable prices. The new plan is available at Rs. 499, which is costlier than Jio's newly launched plans. The JioFiber plan is priced at Rs. 399, which ships 30 Mbps speed along with a subscription to 12 OTT applications, including Amazon Prime, Disney+ Hotstar, and Netflix.

Apart from this new plan, Airtel is upgrading its broadband plans and now offering unlimited calling along with unlimited data. These plans used to offer limited data earlier. But now, all four plans are offering unlimited data. Besides, the company used to offer extra data at Rs. 299, which means users used to get additional data (3.3TB data). However, now it is not offering any such benefits to the customers.

Analysts' Views On New Broadband Plans: Details

However, the new unlimited plan is expected to have a negative impact on Airtel's business. "This will cut Airtel's ARPU (average revenue per user), but should help in expanding its subscriber base," a Mumbai based analyst was quoted by Economic Times. He said, "I see risk to ARPU of Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 (down 30 percent). But the subscriber addition should make more than this in a few quarters. I see this positive for telecom as home broadband will expand fast."

Meanwhile, industry sources believe that Jio is adopting a similar wireless strategy to attract new users towards its broadband users. The company introduced similar initiatives in 2016 with its telecom services. This indicates that Jio is targeting new users and it is trying really hard to compete with other players.