Here’s what Airtel and Vodafone have to say to Mukesh Ambani on Reliance Jio's big bang entry

With the big announcement for launch of Reliance Jio services, Mukesh Ambani also took the chance at the annual general meeting of RIL to voice his concern on not getting enough interconnect capacity from incumbent telecom operators. Ambani talked about how telcos are obligated to extend interconnect capacity to Jio for its voice services and how a fair competition will help the industry grow. India’s top telecom operator, Airtel in a statement said, “We welcome Reliance Jio’s entry to the digital world and wish them the very best. We also welcome Jio’s call to leading operators to work together. As a responsible operator we will fulfill all our regulatory obligations as we have always done”. Telecom operator Vodafone also responded to Reliance Jio launch in a statement that finds no mention of Reliance Jio but highlights what the company has to offer “We have always offered great value to our customers, backed by excellent customer service, a nationwide presence, and Vodafone SuperNetTM– our best network ever. We will continue to do so for our hundreds of million customers across the country.”

Mukesh Ambani announced at the RIL AGM that Reliance Jio services will be available for all from the 5th of September. As expected Ambani shook the Industry with Jio’s offers when it made voice services completely free including when on roaming and data charges at Rs. 50 for 1GB with no up-front payment. To top it all as a welcome offer he announced that Jio services will be available for free till the end of December. Which means everyone can avail Reliance Jio services from 5th of September and use Jio’s service for free till 31st December. Jio certainly has managed to put together a plan that will be difficult for customers to pass on. Although, there has been quite a few adjustments in terms of tariff among telecom operators in the days leading up to Jio’s announcement where Airtel had announced free voice calls and lowered its data tariff.

It’s difficult to say whether the war of words between the telcos and Reliance Jio will finally fizzle out or fire up now that Jio has announced its launch. Telcos had approached top govt offices about uncertainty of Jio’s launch and its free services which went on to become one of the biggest infighting the industry has ever seen. After the Jio announcement telecom industry body COAI said, “Initial advantage will be for Reliance Industries, given the empty network... But over time, we will have to see if that can be sustained,". Mukesh Ambani has set a massive target for Reliance Jio to achieve the fastest 100million customer mark in the world. And Jio is aiming to cover 90% of India’s population by March 2017. Now that Relaince Jio is part of the pack, Jio’s real test will be to maintain the quality of services once the traffic volume goes up.