Reliance Jio Can Now Undercut Rivals With Regulatory Backing

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. stands to gain from another regulatory change that will also keep its larger rivals in check.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, through its new tariff order, revised the definition of “significant market power” that prevents a wireless carrier from misusing its dominant position. Service providers holding a share of at least 30 percent of total activity in a relevant market qualify for it. The changed rules mean Reliance Jio, despite having the highest share in the data market, stays out of its ambit.

While the new definition of significant market power is somewhat in line with the old view, it doesn't reflect the current reality, Mahesh Uppal, director at consultancy ComFirst (India), told BloombergQuint. “The definition fails to reflect that Reliance Jio is not a stereotype young small player but a formidable corporation that is making a huge dent and bidding for power in telecom sector.”

The new norms mean India's youngest telecom operator can continue to undercut rivals. That's when it has already triggered consolidation in the world's second-biggest telecom market by unleashing a tariff war, first with free services and then cut-rate plans, hurting profits of older rivals. The regulator's decision to slash interconnect charges for cross-network calls by more than half came as another boost. Upstart Reliance Jio is the net payer of such fees while older rivals with deeper networks were the net earners. The new tariff order will help it further dent its rivals.

The Changes

Of the four parameters to identify significant market power, TRAI in its new order retained subscriber base and gross revenue, but dropped capacity and traffic share. Reliance Jio has the highest monthly data consumption per user or traffic share. So, the exclusion benefits the company.

Restrictions remain on Bharti Airtel Ltd., India's largest telecom operator, and the combine of Idea Cellular Ltd. and Vodafone India Ltd. Bharti Airtel has more than 30 percent customer market share in nine circles, while Vodafone-Idea breach the 30 percent mark in more than 10 circles.

Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Ideal Cellular were yet to respond to BloombergQuint's emailed queries.

The changes made in the definition of significant market power benefits only the new player in the industry, said Rajan Mathews, director general of industry lobby Cellular Operators Association of India. “Other major operators still remain under the ambit.”

TRAI said that only an incumbent operator enjoying the significant marker power can distort the market. “We beg to differ,” said brokerage Kotak Securities in a note. “That fails to capture the current reality across many industries.”

How It Works

For determining predatory pricing, the regulator will consider average variable cost as the benchmark. Any tariff charged below the cost would be considered the misuse of the dominant position. The onus of providing the business rationale of pricing below the average variable cost rests on the operator.

Which means, incumbents like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea may not be allowed to price below the average variable cost, even for promotional offers, to increase market share.

The only solace is that the larger operators can match competitive pricing of rivals to protect market share. Still, that restricts their ability to undercut Reliance Jio to challenge it with lower pricing.

Chances of the carriers pricing below Reliance Jio are, however, slim as the Ambani-owned operator has promised customers to offer 20 percent more value compared with its rivals.