Airtel to Shut Down 3G Completely, Jio Turns No 1, JioPhone 3 and GigaFiber Update

In an expected move, Airtel, once top player - now 3rd, has announced that they will complete shut down of 3G networks (WCDMA/HSPA/HSPA+) across the country. Airtel started 3G shut down in Q2 of 2019 from Kolkata circle and has planned to do in another 6-7 circles in September. The remaining circles will see 3G shut down by March 2020. There is no news of 2G shut down as of now. 

By 3G shut down, Airtel will have more spectrum for 4G. Airtel's 3G networks are on 900 and 2100 MHz band, and sooner or later all spectrum of these bands will tranform into 4G wave. In brief Airtel's LTE network will be largest in the country, transmitting over 900, 1800, 2100 and 2300 MHz band. (in 2015 I wrote a story on LTE2100)

We hope that Vodafone Idea will follow the suit very soon. 


Jio Reached the Top Spot!

In the last Q2 '19 report Jio declared that they have 331.3 m customers, which makes Jio to become the largest mobile operator in India. Second spot grabbed by Airtel with 320.6 m users and close 3rd is Vodafone Idea with 320m users. Vodafone Idea was the largest one after the merger and they lost huge customers - from 334.1 m to 320 m in the last quarter. 

Incumbents are losing customers as they brought monthly recharge program for low ARPU users and most of such users are keeping this SIM as 2nd connection and talk via 1st SIM. Cutting down these customers will definitely increase the ARPU but operators must be thinking why they could be the users' primary connection. Vodafone Idea is always slow to expand their 4G coverage, and probably that's hurting them hard. 

GigaFiber to be Launched! Along with JioPhone 3

Many are speculating that Jio would be launching GigaFiber across 1100 cities on August 12, 2019 in the AGM of Reliance Industries. GigaFiber is expected to bring IPTV, fiber broadband and landline at single pack - but many thinks that there will not be any price disruption as the technology is so robust for Jio, that technology driven disruption is more logical in the current scenario, where most people are comfortable with smartphone. 

Jio is also busy with launch of JioPhone 3 - as the insiders say it will come with MediaTek chipset, running KaiOS - that's a huge improvement.