By Anirudh Jain
Vodafone will be bundling their mobile internet and broadband services to offer ultra-high-speed services. This will be Vodafone’s strategy in the second round of telecom wars which will take place next year.
Jio versus Vodafone
Jio is running trials for their ultra-fast-fibre-to-home (UFFTH) network in key markets like Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. Jio is offering 100GB of data per month free for the first three months. Additionally, they plan to bundle television services with home broadband to reach out to Tier II and Tier III homes.
Vodafone is not behind. With their acquisition of YOU broadband, they will be bundling their 4G mobile services with line broadband solutions. A Vodafone spokesperson has said that with YOU broadband, the company will “offer customers cutting-edge internet speeds and consistent experience for enabling seamless HD video streaming and browsing across multiple devices simultaneously”. YOU broadband is present in 18 cities across India and has 3,000 km of optic fibre cable and 17,000 km of last mile coaxial cables.
This converged broadband model has already been tested in various markets like UK, Germany, Itlay, Spain, Portugal and Netherlands. In fact in the UK, Vodafone pulled a Jio and is offering the cheapest broadband solution for 21 Euros. They are also offering a minimum speed guarantee of 25 Mbps.
Industry impact
Traditional broadband services like BSNL, Airtel, ACT fibre will have to cut their prices in order to stay relevant against these behemoths. Additionally, we can expect acquisitions of local players like 7 star by telecom giants in order to build their arsenal for this oncoming war.
Industry experts believe that the second phase of growth for telecoms will happen through broadband. Enterprises like schools, SME, startups and residential have a demand for high-speed internet. In fact, the demand is so massive that Vodafone posted a double-digit growth in their enterprise solutions.
Telecoms should have more to offer
This will be an interesting thing to watch as customers cannot be lured with cheap data as they already have that on their smartphones. Hence telecoms will have to innovate and bundle additional services whilst offering a consistency in speed and quality. The race for the broadband war has already started and the initial spoils of this telecom war will be obtained by the ones who will get their services first to the market.
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