Bharti Airtel, Idea fall upto 8 per cent on Reliance Jio’s free voice call announcement

Stocks of Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication came under pressure after Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani elaborated on the features related to free voice calls and cheaper data rates for its telecom venture Reliance Jio. While addressing the company’s 42nd annual general meeting (AGM), Ambani said, “Jio’s pricing is about solving customers’ pain points and customer should pay only for one service – voice or data.” He announced that all voice calls for Jio customers will be absolutely free. “No Jio customer will ever pay for voice calls to any network in India and roaming charges will also be zero,”Ambani said.

Shares of Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular were trading 5.92 per cent and 6.74 per cent down at Rs 312.20 and Rs 87.20, respectively at 11.42 am. Reliance Communication shares were trading 1.02 per cent down at Rs 53.35 at 11.34 am, while Reliance Industries shares were trading 0.51 per cent up at Rs 1063.40. Sensex was trading 5.49 points down at 28,446.68 at 11.31 am.

Giving details about Reliance Jio’s data plan, Ambani said Jio’s base data tariff will cost one-tenth of existing rates being charged currently and will be charged Rs 50 per GB, Rs 149 a month for light data users. This is expected to dent the business of Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular. He further added that students to get 25 per cent more data.

Ambani further announced that Reliance Jio will be commercially launched on September 5, 2016.

IDEA Cellular Limited