Idea

Indian newcomer Reliance Jio accused established rivals of accumulating more than $15 billion by inflating prices and benefiting from inadequate regulation.

Despite Reliance Jio’s aggressive push into the Indian market, with its extended offers for free voice and data, the country’s top three mobile operators saw their market shares by subscribers drop only slightly.

India, a country with 1 billion mobile connections and a SIM penetration of 76 per cent, currently has 11 mobile operators.

Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest operator, took a headstart over rivals by going live with a pilot of its mobile banking service in Rajasthan.

India’s three largest mobile operators, with more than 60 per cent market share between them, are expected to see data revenue per customer drop sharply as they will be forced to cut data rates to compete with 4G newcomer…

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm is offering a full-blown mobile service disguised as a trial.

Idea Cellular, the country’s third largest operator, connected over 680,000 4G subscribers and reported a 13 per cent rise in Q4 consolidated revenue to INR95 billion ($1. 4 billion), but its net profit tumbled 39 per cent to INR5. 76 billion.