Reliance Communications has announced drastic price cuts in 3G data plans for its subscribers – from about Rs250 per GB previously to Rs123.
Announcing the move, Gurdeep Singh, President and CEO, Wireless, Reliance Communications Limited, said, “We want people to think of 3G as the starting point of their mobile Internet experience.”
The price cut is likely to encourage more smartphone users to make better use of the company’s currently under-utilized fiber optic network for 3G services in its 13 circles as well as lure more subscribers to its fold from competing telcos.
According to Singh, India will add 100 million smartphones in the next 24 months and the company aims to increase its share of smartphone users from the current 14% to around 40% by 2015. The company at present has a little over 7 million 3G subscribers in its 13 circles where it provides 3G services.
In a survey of over 5,000 mobile users recently, Reliance had found that 75% of respondents said they thought of 3G data services as too high to be affordable.
As per the company, of the 66 million or so smartphone users currently in India, only 50% are 3G users – and out of this 50% (33 million), around half (16.5 mn) are casual users who use 3G for just 10MB in a month.
The new pricing is on a par with the current 2G data prices prevailing in the market. It is expected to escalate a price war on 3G services among service providers.