Why Jio wants to kill 2G in India?
It is an undeniable fact that Reliance Jio has transformed the Indian telecom sector and its economy. In just half a decade, Jio has become the biggest telecom operator in India. The company has also forced a massive consolidation in the sector and drove many of the players out of the game.
With the title of India’s biggest telecom operator and 44.3 crore customers under its belt, Jio is looking to kill the last piece of the competition. Jio wants to make the pre 4G telecom scene of India a part of history. 2G, the decade-old telecom technology is now in Jio’s crosshair.
India has more than 30 crores 2G customers. 2G customers make around 37% of Airtel’s 35.4 crore customers and 60% of VI’s 27.1 crore customers. For Jio, 30 crores is a too big number to ignore to achieve its goal of having 50 crore customers in India.
Being a 4G only network, Reliance Jio can not offer anything to these 2G customers. Reliance is also missing on billion-dollar contracts awarded by the Government to Airtel and BSNL for 2G connectivity in remote areas. These contracts can bring an additional ₹20,000 crores in revenue for Jio.
The only way Reliance can get these 30 crore customers by killing 2G in India and forcing these customers to migrate to a 4G network. Jio is doing a lot in the policy sphere and on the ground level to kill 2G in India. Previously Reliance has launched the Jio Phone and virtually gave these phones for free to get a piece of India’s 2G customers.
Reliance Jio is not the only company in India that hates 2G. Google, under its Next Billion Users plan, wants to kill 2G as well. The shared interest of Jio and Google bought them together. Google invested $4.5 billion in Jio last year. Recently, Jio and Google have launched a new smartphone with a bit questionable prices to get these 30 crore customers to switch to the 4G network.
Reliance Jio is known for achieving what is deemed unachievable. If Jio manages to pull another miracle and get a huge portion of these 2G customers to switch to Jio, this will make Jio the undisputed king of India’s fast-growing telecom sector.
