Airtel to launch VOLTE services in India by March 18

We all know that the Reliance jio is the only network in India who have 4G VOLTE services. But now Barati airtel is going to launch VOLTE services in India by March 18. This will make war between the the Reliance jio and Airtel more and more tighter. On arrival of VoLTE services in Airtel, that enables phone calls using 4G technology across India.

The net income for the Sunil Mittal company stood at Rs1,462 crore in the first quarter of 2016-17.

“We have done (VoLTE) trials in 5-6 cities. Towards the end of this fiscal year, we will be taking VoLTE everywhere. The uptake of VoLTE devices will depend on certification...We should be very much national in the coming 6-9 months,” Gopal Vittal, managing director and CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel said during the earnings call.

At present, Mukesh Ambani controlled Reliance Jio is the only operator in India offering voice on the 4G network using VoLTE technology, while the incumbent telcos have been offering voice calls to their 4G customers with support of their other established networks—2G and 3G.

Vittal said that 3G networks in India will be phased out faster than other parts of the world and “India will get to a situation where 4G and 2G will co-exist for a while.”

Bharti Airtel on Tueday reported its smallest profit in 18 quarters as the price war triggered by newcomer Reliance Jio led to a massive 75% fall in its April-June earnings. The net profit for the first quarter of 2017-18, at Rs367 crore, was 74.9% lower than the year-ago period, and the company blamed the disruptive pricing of the new entrant for continued “turbulence” and stress in the market.

To questions on Airtel’s strategy to counter the new 4G feature phone announced by Reliance Jio, Vittal said Airtel will not be taking a similar route. “One of the things that we have stayed away and have no intention to get into is subsidising device, managing device inventories and running these devices as they belong to us,” he said.

Reliance Jio has announced that it will launch a 4G feature phone against one-time refundable deposit of Rs1,500 a unit. It will come pre-loaded with applications with the option of unlimited data usage and free calling service starting at Rs24.

Vittal said that Reliance Jio’s feature phone will open up new segment for 4G services. “We believe that this could propel the launch of cheaper phones in the market and that is something that we embrace. We will work with all the device companies to encourage this. We will continue to look at opportunity where we can bundle,” he said, while raising uncertainty over pick up of JioPhone.

Vittal said that the price of the feature phone is on the higher side than what is being sold in the market. “60-65% feature phones are sold below Rs1,000 in India. This is higher end of that. We need to understand what the terms and conditions are and how customers respond. We will respond at the right point of time,” he said.

Vittal said that aggressive plans of Jio may lead to further consolidation which will benefit Airtel. He, however, said that company will respond with competitive strategy to increase its market share. “You have seen action in the market already. We have lost ARPU over last few quarters, we have seen revenue erosion. This is simply because we have responded in the marketplace with aggressive pricing in order to compete and grow our market share. That aspect will continue,” Vittal said.

The total customer base of Airtel in India increased by 9.7% to over 28 crore but its average revenue per user (ARPU) declined by 21.1% to Rs154 from Rs196 on YoY basis. “The reason that is important is as you come out of this war that is currently on, we believe that this market will consolidate behind three players plus the government player, may be four, but perhaps three. We believe our objective is to consolidate and grow our market share,” Vittal said.