 "Ahead of Reliance Jio's entry, Airtel ramps up 4G network in Punjab")
As Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocom is inching closer to roll out its 4G services in December this year, the rival Airtel is beefing up its infrastructure to grab the bigger market share in Punjab.
Reliance Jio has been behind schedule for the rollout of high speed 4G services in Punjab and has been extending time lines for the past year and a half. Airtel has a monopoly in the 4G market of Punjab as it launched its 4G services in April 2013 in Punjab and is present in 12 major towns of the state.
According to the sources familiar to development, the delay in laying of underground fibre cables of Reliance that has been executed by HFCL (Himachal Futuristic Communication Limited) has been a major roadblock in the speedy implementation. A Punjab based digital cable services provider, who allegedly has the political patronage of the ruling government of Punjab was facilitated during the laying of underground infrastructure.
In order to counter the churning of subscribers in the wake of competition, Airtel is aggressively ramping up its infrastructure by adding BTS (base transmitter receiver). The company also reaped the advantage of first mover. It commenced with a 40 Gb plan two years ago and has upgraded to 160 GB plan. The usage by SMEs, SMBs and NRIs of Punjab in the urban clusters spurred the demand for higher plans.
The tele density of Punjab is 105.13 and the state ranks third, after Tamilnadu (166.96) and Himachal Pradesh (111.78) according to TRAI statistics. The urban tele density is 150 and rural is 70 in Punjab.
Reliance Industries CMD Mukesh Ambani announced this week that his company would connect every village in Punjab with 4G connectivity by December 28 this year. During a meeting with the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal in Mumbai, Ambani said Reliance would invest Rs 1,000 crore in its Hoshiarpur plant which produced speciality fibres in the next few years. He said besides this the company was keen to integrate agriculture markets so that the farmer got the best remunerative price for his crop. "We have done this in Karnataka and would like to establish a similar platform in Punjab".
The agriculture in Punjab is going through a crisis due to failure of cotton crop and abysmally low remunerations from potato and basmati paddy, this year. The rural subscribers are waiting for some crop compensation from government and not keen to avail a high speed 4G connection.The officials in Reliance Jio Infocom refused to comment and there is no clarity on the 4G operations of the company in Punjab. The urban pockets in Punjab with a tele density of 150 and, a high growth of smart phones and data proliferation may offer a good kickstart to the new entrants.