Reliance to invest Rs 600 bn in Jio this year, may borrow Rs 1 trn more

Subscriber additions, while suppressing incumbent telecom operators, will continue to remain top priority, say analysts

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is likely to invest another Rs 600 billion this year in its telecom business Reliance Jio Infocomm with an emphasis on faster rollout of broadband services and wireless expansion, Livemint reported, quoting anonymous company sources.

The sources have also been quoted as saying that Reliance Jio might borrow up to Rs 1 trillion in addition to the above-mentioned investment. Jio and RIL spokespersons did not comment on queries about the investment.

“Management made it very clear that their focus in the near term is to retain and grow their subscriber base and they would respond to market pricing. Essentially the implication was that incumbents would need to raise tariffs, but this would effectively lead to loss of market share for incumbents as JIO would offer the best 'value' to subscribers and hence continue to see large subscriber additions,” noted JP Morgan in their recent report on RIL.

The report further stated that JIO is expected to launch its broadband business with a pricing strategy similar to that of its telecom arm, given its focus is on creating a new market.

While JIO’s average revenue per user (ARPU) fell to Rs 137 from Rs 154 in the last quarter of 2017-18, it still remains better than that of Airtel and Idea cellular. JIO also managed to add almost 9 million subscribers during the quarter.

“Jio is expected to remain aggressive to gain market share, which could keep industry revenue under pressure and return ratios of incumbents suppressed,” noted an India Equity Research in a report on Monday.

JioFiber, the wired broadband arm, has started offering what they claim to be 'ultra-high-speed' fibre to home (FTTH) broadband connections with 1.1 terabytes (TB) of free data at speeds of 100 megabits per second (mbps) in select markets in the country already. However, commercial services are likely to be rolled out in the second-half of the year.

The company currently claims more than 300,000 km of optical fibre network in the country and the company is expected to target over 100 million households across the country with the service.

Reliance Jio Prime membership subscription to end on March 31: What next?

Jio Prime subscriptions, started April 1 last year, expire on 31 March. Now, with the expiry approaching, it is expected that Jio would make a new announcement sometime soon

Reliance Jio shook the Indian telecommunication space with the launch of its affordable, data-centric network. After doling out freebies for more than the first six months since the launch, the Mukesh Ambani-owned telecom major introduced Prime membership at Rs 99 with the promise of offering subsidised recharge options and additional benefits for a period of one year.

The Jio Prime memberships, which came into effect on April 1 last year, are valid until 31 March. Now, with the subscription expiry approaching, it is expected that Jio would make an announcement sometime soon.

While there is nothing official yet, it is expected that the company might completely do away with the Prime subscription or offer it as a free service.

Here is what the company offered in the first iteration of the Prime membership:

• Free unlimited data and voice services for one year at an effective price of Rs 10 per day
• Special recharge plans with additional data and validity
• Free VoLTE-based voice calls to any network, even on roaming with no black out days either.
• Free access to Jio app suite

The Prime membership was initially rolled out as a loyalty programme to retain subscribers as the company moved from free to paid services.In the first leg, the Prime membership was advertised as a limited period offer. However, as time moved, the company continued offering the membership to get more subscribers. Now, according to Jio’s official portal, there is no mention of services that the company offers to non-prime subscribers. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the subscription based membership program may eventually fade out.

Ways to use 4G data while paying 3G rates

Ways to use 4G data while paying 3G rates

With mobile companies offering faster 4G data service at 3G rates, many customers are shifting to the newer technology. After all, who does not want more speed at the same price? But here’s a catch — faster speed means quicker usage of data packs.

However, just because 4G consumes more data, one does not have to stick with 3G to save on data consumption. Checking emails, sending and receiving messages over WhatsApp, checking Facebook and Twitter doesn’t eat much of your data. Usually, streaming media services like videos and games dries up a large chunk of data.

If you can change settings of your apps and proactively manage their data consumption, you can reduce your 4G bill. For example, if you go to YouTube app’s settings, you can choose to stream HD videos only when the phone is connected to Wi-Fi. Similarly, in video conference apps such as Skype, you can opt for lower quality video.Read more.

Airtel ranks 1st spot on data usage, Reliance jio 6th

Airtel ranks 1st spot on data usage, Reliance jio 6th

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's telecom arm Reliance Jio even before its commercial launch has climbed up to sixth position on data usage as its pilot launch saw users downloading more as against some industry players.

While Airtel continues to lead with 45 million gigabyte (GB) of data usage per month in the March quarter, Jio is ranked sixth with 13 million GB, according to latest data available with the company.

For the quarter in question, Airtel had about 55 million users with a monthly usage of 45 million GB. Vodafone's 47 million users downloaded 28 million GB of data at an average 0.6 GB per user.

Jio, which has done a pilot launch for its employees and their relatives and friends, saw its 70 lakh users download 13 million GB of data at an average of 19.2 GB per user.

The company is offering the service free to its employees and at a nominal cost to their relatives. The speed of 4G is also said to be behind the high data usage.

Taken together, India had 278 million data users in the said quarter downloading 202 million GB at an average of 0.7 GB per user. (more)

Tamil Nadu Assembly Elections 2016

Just a month ahead of Elections in Tamil Nadu, the two Dravidian parties — which have been ruling the state for nearly half a century — have now promised that they would work towards total prohibition. So, whichever party comes to the power after May 16, it is clear that the state is set to become a no-liquor state, but the question is how revenue of around Rs 27,000 crore, which is coming out of liquor sales, will be compensated.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK Supremo J Jayalalithaa said that if her party is voted back to power, step by step prohibition will be implemented.

“Full prohibition is not possible in one signature or overnight. It will be implemented in stages," she said. The strategy would be first reducing the timing of the shops and reducing number of shops and bars, said Jayalalithaa.

AIADMK's main rival DMK also promised full prohibition immediately and said employees of TASMAC, which is in charge of wholesale liquor sales in the state, will be given alternate jobs.

Without giving details on how the party is planning to compensate the revenue loss, DMK's Supermo Karunanidhi said his party will take appropriate measures to compensate the revenue loss.

TASMAC turnover grew from Rs 139.41 crore in 1983-84 to over Rs 27,000 crore now. There are about 6800 TASMAC outlets across the state.

In 1983, Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (Tasmac) was instituted to monopolise wholesale trade of Indian Made Foreign Liquor and that facilitated cost-effective excise duty collection.

In 1937, prohibition was introduced by C Rajagopalachari (Rajaji) in Salem and in phases it was implemented in other parts of the state. But in 1971, DMK Government headed by Karunanidhi withdrew the total prohibition. Karunanidhi said it was due bleak economic situation and the shops were closed in 1974, after which, he alleged, that the alchoholic beverages shops were opened by AIADMK government in 1981.

Jayalalithaa said in the last five years sales has been coming down which is a sign of state started going towards full prohibition. She noted, sales of IMFL (Indian Made Foreign Liquor) during DMK's period increased by 109 per cent to 4.78 crore boxes and beer sales which was around 1.32 crore boxes in 2005-06 has increased to 2.86 crore 2010-11, during DMK regime.

In the last five years the sales dropped to around 2.31 crore

Is complete prohibition possible?

Political and economists, who tracks the state, said it is impossible, considering revenue from liquor amounting to over 20-25% of the State's Own Tax Revenue every year. How they will adjust the revenue gap and how they will be funding Government's welfare and freebies schemes, they questioned. It may noted, DMK's manifesto did not had much of electronics freebies.

Tamil Nadu Elections 2016: The party which was the first one to introduce the freebies concept by offering free television sets to voters, this time said it will give free mobile sets, for the poor. It also said free 3G/4G will be given to students."Both the parties do not have real intention to bring in prohibition. If they are going to stop liquor sales, they may have to borrow an additional Rs 25,000 crore to execute all those freebies," said M R Venkatesh, a Chartered Accountant and an expert in economic policy related matters.

Both the parties have not really put their thoughts into the idea and meagerly proclaims prohibition out of competitive spirit, he added.

The ruling AIADMK has been distributing free mixies, grinders, fans, cows, goats and others for the last five years. Over the past decade, successive governments in the state have spent nearly $2 billion (Rs 11,561 crore) on just three freebie schemes - colour television sets, laptops and household appliances. Tamil Nadu's outstanding debt in 2014-15 was Rs 1,81,036 crore and this is expected to increase to Rs 2,11,483 crore.

When the AIADMK took charge State debt was Rs 1,01,349 crore. One of the reasons is various freebies and subsidy programme, alleges some political parties."Closure of TASMAC shops will result in loss of income to the level of thousands of crore of rupees to state, which would force the government to suspend several of its welfare measures," said an official. He added the fact that there is not much scope left for further imposing of taxes.

Venkatesh said that it does not mean that prohibition cannot be implemented, and he believes that it has to be brought in and reminded that the State of Gujarat is revenue surplus even after prohibition, regardless whether their policies are good or not.

However, it means cutting down expenditure in all means and stopping various freebies. Tamil Nadu has projected a revenue surplus of Rs 664.06 crore for 2014-15, but reported a revenue deficit of Rs 6,407.56 crore.

While the projection for 2015-16 was a revenue surplus of Rs 783.43 crore, the revised estimates shows a revenue deficit of Rs 9,481.14 crore. For 2016-17, the projection is revenue surplus of Rs 311.45 crore, while the budget estimates is a revenue deficit of Rs 9,154.78 crore. The other problem, according to experts, in implementing total prohibition could lead to illicit liquor. Duplicate liquor will be sold in black, which may even cause health hazards to the public and it will damage the ruling party.

Political critics also alleges that many of the distilleries are owned by politicians and over Rs 3,500 crore worth of liquor, are supplied by these distilleries. He questioned if suspension of freebies, expenditure optimisation, industrialisation gets further boost and other measures can be carried out, then there is a feasibility. But at the current environment none of this is possible.

Xiaomi Mi 5: A flagship at half the price

When I first heard the price of the Xiaomi Mi 5, I was intrigued. A China-based handset maker, known for offering decent hardware at extremely low prices, moving into the mid-range segment? What were they smoking?

Don't get me wrong. I've owned a Mi 3 and my regular phone is a Redmi 2, but this defied logic. I got the answer a few days later when I got my hands on a review sample of the Mi 5.

The white handset with its chamfered edges and glass back has a premium look, though I daresay, is slippery to hold. Blame it on the very thin edges and the non-existent bezel on the sides of the 5.15-inch screen, which seems to seamlessly merge into the back. In a first, the Mi 5 sports a physical home button below the screen, which does double duty as a fingerprint scanner.

Setting up is fairly simple, especially the fingerprint scanner. Since I already had a Mi account, I could restore the apps from my Redmi 2. The Mi 5 runs Miui 7, which is based on Android Marshmallow, though some unique features of the stock OS seem to be absent. Suffice to say anyone who's used Miui earlier will feel right at home.

Since the phone sports the latest Snapdragon 820 processor paired with 3GB of RAM, I downloaded Riptide GP 2 and Asphalt 8: Airborne. Thankfully, after a five-hour stint of the above two games, along with NFS: Most Wanted, the phone was pretty warm but not scalding hot. But since the speakers are on the bottom edge, I ended up muffling the sound most of my playing time. The battery, too, took a hit

Next, after charging the phone fully in around 90 minutes (when the phone warmed up again), I stepped out. Since it supports Sunlight Display like the Mi4i, I didn't need to squint to read emails. This phone supports voice over LTE (or VoLTE), the next big thing for users.

I then fired up the Chrome browser, opened some six-seven tabs, and played NFS. No sweat at all. Then I watched Master of None on Netflix. The good thing is, the Airtel 4G network stayed true and there was no stuttering or buffering, despite the apps running in the background.

The camera didn't disappoint. I got quite a few shots of trucks rushing by, which otherwise would have been blurred. There are also a lot of options and filters in the camera app. I especially liked the voice trigger and the ability to pick microphones while shooting 4K videos. The four-axis image stabiliser helped immensely. And yes, this is possibly among the best video cameras I've seen on a phone.

But low-light shots were full of noise. I also had some fun with the selfie cam, which tries guessing your age; it was way off the mark while the snaps were okay. Battery life, too, was fairly decent, and I got through a day with heavy email usage calling, messaging a little bit of games and videos and some photography.

At Rs 24,999, the Xiaomi Mi 5 has a lot going as a flagship; the only things missing are expandable storage; water-proofing and a quad HD screen, available on phones double its price. But it will face stiff competition from the Lenovo Vibe X3, OnePlus 2 and Asus Zenfone 2, which might have older hardware, but are very good phones nonetheless.