Rivals Jio, Airtel bulk up for data war albeit with contrasting strategies

The recognition that content - video in particular - will be the next big thing in the telecom wars requires no rocket science

Last week, Airtel announced a tie-up with Amazon under which all its post-paid customers with a plan of over Rs 499 a month and above would get, at no extra cost, unlimited access to an Amazon Prime membership (worth Rs 999 for a year) that comes with Amazon Prime Video.  

The move is expected to give Airtel a fillip in data usage, which has seen an upswing with average data consumption per subscriber going up by 56 per cent in the quarter ending September 2017 (quarter-on-quarter), most of it on account of the video.

The Amazon Prime deal is