Telcos roll out festive offers to retain top prepaid users
Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi) have unveiled a host of limited-period offers that bundle generous dollops of extra data, over-the-top (OTT) streaming apps, gift vouchers and extended pack validity to hold on to their top-end, revenue-generating prepaid users, in the aftermath of the recent headline rate hikes.
A day after Jio offered additional benefits worth ₹700 on its ₹899, ₹999 and ₹3,599 prepaid packs as part of its eighth anniversary offer, Airtel and Vi on Friday rolled out their own competitive festive offers to counter Jio amid rising competition in the battle to retain revenue-generating prepaid users.
The latest battle to retain high-value prepaid users between India's top three telcos comes even as loss-making Vi itself is struggling to hold onto its own users. Vi's stock plunged almost 11.5% to close at ₹13.36 on the BSE on Friday, just days after its revenue market share (RMS) plummeted to an all-time low of 15% in the fiscal first quarter, as per latest data collated by the telecom regulator.
Thursday, Goldman Sachs, in a report, said Vodafone Idea's ₹24,000 crore equity fundraise is unlikely to be adequate to stop the company's market share erosion, and slashed the telco's target price by over 83%.
«Our analysis suggests a direct correlation between capex and revenue market share, and given our expectation of peers spending at least 50% higher capex vs Vodafone Idea, we forecast another 300 bps share loss for the company over the next 3-4 years,» it said.
These, even as Jio,
