India will have more than 850 million online users by 2025 : BCG

According to new survey by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), India will have more than 850 million online users by 2025.

The survey said that, "while it took the country eight years to reach 250 million 3G connections, Reliance Jio 4G network added 100 million connections in just seven months."

The company has recently launched VoLTE feature phone, JioPhone.

Meanwhile, analyst said that, JioPhone, is likely to keep the competitive intensity of the industry high with the telco targeting strong addition of lower-ARPU subscribers and/or rural subscribers.

ICRA said that tariff of Rs. 153 per month translates into ARPU of Rs. 130 for RJio. In contrast, for Q4FY2017, the ARPU of Bharti Airtel stood at Rs. 158, while that of Idea Cellular stood at Rs. 142 which reflects the blend of both urban and rural subscribers. Reliance Jio is offering base ARPU of Rs. 130 heralds uplift in the ARPU of the industry. But this gain will fructify over the longer period till the rural subscribers get captivated to higher data usage, albeit at a higher monthly cost.

Care Ratings separately said that JioPhone would allow Jio to gain subscriber base in the telecom services space. It said that issues of network coverage in very remote areas would be critical for the 4G entrant to sustain subscriber additions.

According to the report by Fitch Ratings, Reliance Jio's 4G handset is likely to quickly replace 2G handsets in rural areas, where smartphones had previously been out of reach for many potential customers.

The cheap handset would add 3 percent-4 percent (or around $950 million) to annual industry revenue if adopted by at least 100 million subscribers, which appears likely.