Mukesh Ambani s $16 billion 4G-disruption set to curb tariffs

Via Mint | Jun 16, 2015

The countdown to one of the boldest rollouts of fourth-generation (4G) wireless
technology has begun: by year s end, India s richest man will fire up a broadband ne
twork that s set to shake up the nation s voice and data industry. Mukesh Ambani sai
d last week his $16 billion Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd service would begin commer
cial operations around December. That throws down the gauntlet to top incumbents
Bharti Airtel Ltd, Vodafone Group Plc and Idea Cellular Ltd, and risks squeezin
g others such as sibling Anil Ambani s Reliance Communications Ltd, Tata Teleservi
ces Ltd and Telenor ASA. The disruption is going to come from Jio pushing for fas
ter 4G adoption, said Jimmy Chen, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein and Co. in H
ong Kong. To encourage that, it will have to make data a lot cheaper. The margins
of incumbents are definitely going to come under pressure. While there s a six-mon
th window for Bharti and Vodafone to improve their high-speed products, Standard
and Poor s said smaller operators may get further marginalized.