As Ambani channels his inner Steve Jobs and looks to shake-up Internet connectivity, the bloodbath that will follow needs to be monitored to ensure that the industry's competitiveness and viability remains intact.
The launch of Jio signals an important shift from scrounging for data and data-scarcity to potentially an era of data abundance. The most obvious indicator of this are Reliance’s free voice calls, cheap data packages (4GB of 4G data for Rs. 499), the elimination of national roaming and its corresponding effect on competition (which has in an industry-wide reduction of data rates). Slightly cheaper rates, however, are only one piece of the puzzle.
The positive consequences of Reliance Jio’s launch will ripple across the technology and Internet ecosystem as well. “Leaving aside the consumer angle for one second, however, this is going to be an absolute bonanza for India’s Internet companies, many of which have been struggling in the last year as they restructure and resize. These companies have started hitting initial barriers to unrestricted growth. Data usage for e-commerce services like Flipkart, streaming services like Gaana and of course Facebook and Google is going to burst through the roof for the next three months,” a senior partner at Sequoia Capital India, who declined to be identified, told The Wire.
