What is the business model of Reliance Jio?

It is really simple. Most of you are going to pay the same or probably more money to Jio compared to your current network provider. After reading this answer, you will realize what a clever businessman Mukesh Ambani is.

Questions:
a. How are they offering 4G data at such cheap rates? 
b. And how are they providing unlimited voice calls (local/STD) free to every JIO customer?
c. How they are offering unlimited 4G data at night?

 

Which plan would you choose? If you are a voice-only kind of person, then you would be okay with the Rs 149 per 28 days plan, as you will get free unlimited voice calls. But, even though you are not explicitly paying for voice, you are already paying over Rs 150 per month, thus their ARPU will by default be as good as the current players.

If you are someone who uses over Rs 150 worth of voice calls every month then it is a totally awesome plan for you. But, my point is that other telecom companies make about Rs 150 per month on average from each user by charging for voice, SMS, data and roaming. Jio will be making the same/more amount of money on average from each user even after providing SMS, roaming and voice calls for free, by just pricing things differently.

Now, if you are a moderately data using person, which plan would you choose? Did you see that there is no plan in-between the Rs 149 and Rs 499 plans? This is basically a psychological trick to get you into the Rs 499 plan. Many people will compare it with the smaller plan and see that you are getting Unlimited 4G night data and choose atleast the 499 plan.

Now, again see that if you want to really use more than 4GB of 4G, then you have to spend double and move to the 999 plan. Did you notice that there is nothing in-between?

What does 1GB costs?

If we exclude the unlimited night data and the wifi data which many of us may not have access to, then the price per GB of these plans will be

0.3GB for Rs149 = ~Rs 497/GB (Will anyone choose this for data?)
4GB for Rs 499 = ~Rs 125/GB
10GB for Rs 999= ~Rs 100/GB
20GB for Rs 1499= ~Rs75/GB
35GB for Rs 2499= ~Rs71/GB
60GB for Rs3999= ~Rs66/GB
75GB for Rs 4999= ~Rs66/GB

Did you see that even their highest plans doesn’t go as low as their advertised Rs 50/GB rate.

How can they provide unlimited night data?

Once you have build an entire network infrastructure, it really doesn't cost anything for the network provider to give you internet data. I have explained this in the form of a story in one of my other answers - Kshitij Salgunan's answer to What is the cost of the Internet? How much extra are we paying?

The reason why most internet providers limit your data is basically because they do not have enough bandwidth to handle so much data. In the case of Jio, they have already laid an awesome fiber optic network which is designed to even handle the 5G and 6G. So, they do not have much of the data bandwidth problem.

Other telecom companies were primarily made to handle voice calls and they have limited data bandwidth. Also, other companies do not own nationwide fiber network, so they have to pay to use the fiber network of other companies. This is the reason other companies don’t usually provide unlimited plans.

Jio currently have the ability to provide truly unlimited data plans, but they will not do so, because that will decrease their profits. They have already decreased prices on average by 50%. This means people will anyway be happy to use their services. If they provide more GBs in the lower end plans, then lesser people will buy their higher plans. So, currently their pricing is optimally placed to increase their profit. When other companies reduce their prices, it is likely that Jio will also further reduce their prices.

And, the unlimited night usage is only valid for hours in-between 2AM and 5AM

How can they provide unlimited free voice calls?

Again, Jio has an all IP network, so all voice calls will go through the internet just like skype or whatsapp. There is not really any point in charging for voice anymore. It is an outdated system and there shouldn’t really be any surprise in why Jio totally abandoned it.

If hypothetically, Jio had tariff for voice calls, then some company similar to WhatsApp would have launched an app through which you can do free voice call over the internet (infact WhatsApp itself has a voice-call option). Once everyone has a good internet connection, people would anyway use such services to make their calls.

The real money is in Jio Apps

Many people may consider their apps to be bloatware and don’t even install it. I also thought of it as a bloatware when I first heard of it. But, when I tested them out, I saw real potential in them.

 

1. JioPlay : This has the potential to become a TV channel company. My prediction is that Jio will soon release something like Google Chromecast to provide this service directly to TVs. The ability to watch Live TV channels on smartphones is also a cool idea, especially in India. This may become the most used app in rural areas too.
2. JioOnDemand : This has the potential to become the Netflix of India. Imagine if those who currently pirate movies had an option to get those movies in HD quality legally for nearly free. It can benefit both the users and the producers.
3. JioBeats : Legal music. It has the potential to become Spotify of India.
4. JioMags : Most popular magazines in eBook format. My cousin who reads tech magazines on a regular basis loved it.

You get the point? They can make any type of app in the future and dominate that category with minimal efforts.

They are currently giving these apps for free till 2018. But, that is done so that they can get maximum users to get addicted to these apps. Then they can start subscription charges for these apps. Instead of paying for your TV service or Movie-DVD or Magazines, Jio wants you to pay them.

Apart from that, these apps are locked to Jio network. So, a person using any other internet service won’t be able to use it. Thus, this will force other people into joining Jio. Currently, only Airtel is capable of properly competing with Jio in the 4G market, but they too may not be able to release such apps on time.

You will likely spend the same

If you are someone who uses 5GB of data every month, and you were currently spending Rs 1000 per month with the current providers, you will be happy that you can get same amount of data for Rs 500.

But, you are likely to spend the same amount of money over the time and consume 10GB of data for Rs 1000, instead. This is because 4G speeds are awesome and now there are many more ways to spend the data. And, since you have the budget for it, you are likely to spend more.

So, even though you are getting much more value than the current operator, Jio can still make the same/better revenue. This may not be applicable to everyone, but may happen to most people.

Is this good?

Yes, we need companies like Reliance to make such bold moves and invest in India. This is good for everyone. It is a win-win situation. It will increase the progress rate in India and will improve our quality of life. It will also give much needed jobs to millions of people.

Also, we absolutely need competition in this stagnated telecom industry which is currently dominated by players who may have secretly made agreements with each other to not compete on the basis of price. Why do you think Idea, Airtel and Vodafone have similar looking pricing which charges Rs 250 for one GB data?

Conclusion

By just making their tariff plan in such a way that most people interested in 4G have to pay over Rs 500 per month, Jio will be making way more money than the current players. Most of the high value customers of other players will instantly port to Jio, and they maybe able to achieve a huge market share in next couple of years.

You, as a customer will get 2x to 3x more value for your money, yet Jio will make make as much profit as existing telecoms by pricing things differently.

Thalassemia : Causes, Symptoms & Diagnosis

What is Thalassemia?

Thalassemia is a blood disorder passed down through families (inherited) in which the body makes an abnormal form of hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. The disorder results in excessive destruction of red blood cells, which leads to anemia. Anemia is a disorder in which your body doesn’t have enough normal, healthy red blood cells (RBC).

This disease is inherited, meaning that at least one of your parents must be a carrier of the disease. It is caused by either a genetic mutation, or a deletion of certain key genes.

The two main forms of thalassemia are alpha thalassemia and beta thalassemia. In alpha thalassemia, at least one of the alpha globin genes has a mutation or abnormality. In beta thalassemia, the beta globin genes are the ones affected.

Each of these two forms of thalassemia has several distinct types. The exact form you have will affect the severity of your symptoms and your prognosis.

Interesting Facts about Thalassemia Carriers :

• It is a genetic disorder inherited from either or both of your parents.
• It is the commonest single gene disorder in the global population .
• In Malaysia, it is estimated that 1 in 20 people is a thalassemia carrier.
• The disorder primarily affects your red blood cells (RBC) resulting in reduced or absent production of haemoglobin –the oxygen carrying vehicle in your body resulting in a medical condition known as anaemia.

Chris Brown : My Baby is Royalty!!!

Chris Brown's baby girl answers to Royalty! We”ve learned Nia named the kid Royalty. What we don”t know … whether she consulted Chris before inking the birth certificate.

TMZ broke the story … Chris and Nia got it on summer of 2013 and she gave birth 9 months ago. As we reported, Karrueche was blindsided … she had no idea until minutes before TMZ posted the story Tuesday afternoon.

As for Chris” involvement … we”re told he calls Nia regularly and now says he wants to openly participate in raising the baby. Nia and Roy alty live in Texas, and Chris says he”ll gladly fly there regularly to parent her.

We've learned Nia named the kid Royalty. What we don't know ... whether she consulted Chris before inking the birth certificate.