Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel Slump On Reliance Industries JioFiber Push

Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel shares slumped as much as 10.28 per cent and 6.62 per cent respectively on Tuesday, a day after Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani unveiled an aggressive plan for the rollout of JioFiber at the company's 42nd annual general meeting in Mumbai. JioFiber is an optical-fiber-based fixed line broadband service provided by Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecommunications arm of Reliance Industries. "We received over 15 million registrations from nearly 1,600 towns. And based on these registrations, we have drawn up a plan to reach 20 million residences and 15 million business establishments in these 1,600 towns," Mr Ambani said while speaking on JioFiber at the conglomerate's 42nd annual general meeting on Monday.

JioFiber plans will be priced between Rs 700 to Rs 10,000 per month to suit every budget and every need, Mr Ambani said. "The most basic JioFiber plan starts with 100 Mbps speed and we have plans all the way up to 1 Gbps or 1000 Mbps," Mr Ambani said.

The JioFiber services will start from September 5, which will be the third anniversary of Jio's launch, Mr Ambani added.

As part of the JioFiber plan, customers will get high speed internet with speeds up to 1 Gbps, a landline phone connection at no additional cost and a digital set-top-box, Mr Ambani added.

"The experience of Jio Fiber and Jio set-top-box really comes to life when combined with an LED television. So, JioFiber customers who opt for our annual plans which we call Jio-forever plans, will get an HD or 4K LED television and a 4K set-top-box absolutely free," Mr Ambani added.

At 11:17 am, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea shares traded 6.4 per cent and 6.5 per cent lower respectively while Reliance Industries was up 11 per cent, sharply outperforming the Nifty which was down 0.27 per cent.