By March, a quarter of Reliance Jio subscribers to be JioPhone users

By 2021, analysts estimate over 40 per cent of Jio's subscribers would be smartphone users

A fourth of the consumers of Reliance Jio would also be users of its feature phone by the end of this financial year (end-March), say analysts.

A company source says of the 10 million monthly subscriber additions in the past four months, 50-55 per cent are JioPhone users. Jio had around 280 mn subscribers at end-December and expects to cross 300 mn by end-March. 

By 2021, analysts estimate over 40 per cent of Jio's subscribers would be featurephone users.

Jio's feature phone push has also made it the market leader in the country’s overall handset market, with a 21 per cent share in calendar year 2018, shows data from Counterpoint Research. In the feature phone segment JioPhone had 38 per cent, up from 11 per cent in 2017. 

While analysts predict that Jio's blended ARPU would be flat over the next three years, data shows that JioPhone’s average revenue per user (Arpu) is Rs 102 or 11 per cent higher than the sector Arpu. CLSA analysts say the higher Arpu feature phone users are migrating to Jio and this might be why the older majors are losing market share in the B and C circles (mostly tier-2 cities and rural markets). 

"JioPhone is a category in itself. Many users cannot afford higher plans but wanted a 4G (fourth-generation technology) experience.We saw an opportunity there. We have been adding applications on the JioPhone and the hours of video content on it have been on the rise. The segment we targeted was looking at a radio-cum-television experience on the go. JioPhone met that need gap," the company source added. 

Citi Research says JioPhone users consume an average of 8-9 GB a month of data. 

Tanu Sharma, associate director at India Ratings and Research, says the highly price-sensitive 2G users of other companies had upgraded to the JioPhone as they wanted the data experience. "And, this is a huge subscriber base. Almost 60 per cent of the overall wireless subscriber base of 1.17 billion are feature phone users. There are smart feature phones (like JioPhone) and there are 2G-enabled feature phones," she said. 

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, the older majors, are trying to expand the penetration of 4G in their subscriber base. as they take their 4G network to the hinterland of India.

Anshuman Thakur, head of strategy and planning at Jio, had said at the announcement of its December quarter results: "Those on JioPhone have come with lower tariffs (rates) but their engagement levels are very high and they're upgrading plans rapidly."

Of JioPhone’s three plans, he had said, the offtake for the higher ones (Rs 100 and Rs 150 a month)  had been going up, with more of the Rs 49 plan subscribers opting for more data.