1- Telecom has always been a sector close to the heart of the

Mukesh Ambani, who is known for his quick execution of

mega projects, launched his dream mobile services in 2003-
04 with a slogan Kar Lo Duniya Muththi Mein (take control
of the world). However, he had to give up Reliance Infocomm
(which later became RCom) to Anil Ambani in 2005 when
the Reliance Empire was split.
In 2010, Reliance entered Broadband services market with
acquisition of Infotel Broadband Services Limited. Now it is
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.(RJIL), wholly owned by RIL for
4800 crore (US$730 million). Infotel Broadband was the only
successful bidder for pan-India fourth-generation (4G) spec-
trum auction held by Government of India. Embodying the
latest technology, 4G-LTE offers data transmission at almost
four times the speed of 3G and 16 times the speed of 2G.
This is expected to cause problems for 3G players such as
Bharti, Vodafone and Idea, who have paid a huge price to
buy the spectrum.
Infotel Broadband is the brain child of Manoj Modi, a close
aide of RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani, who was responsible
for the original telecom venture of the group known as Reli-
ance Infocomm.

In Oct. 2013, Reliance Industries Ltd. Telecom unit received

a unified permit from Indias Department of Telecommunica-
tions to offer telecommunications and related services. The
license will allow the unit, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., to of-
fer telecom services including voice telephone services un-
der a single permit in all 22 telecom service areas.

2- Threat from Substitutes

The entry of Jio has created a new substitute for the existing
networks and in fact it has also created new substitutes within the
existing players due to drop in tariffs among the latter. This time
substitute is not in the form of products but it is in the form of
service providers. Now customers have a new service provider
who says he will listen to their requests, give them free call
services, low data tariffs and please them with offers.
The worse thing that existing players can do right now is to match
the plans that the new substitute is offering and sadly that is what
is happening right now.

3- Bargaining Power of Customers

With the above 3 forces acting in conjunction with another on
each one of the service providers, the bargaining power of the
customer has increased. In fact customers can now call up the
customer service and ask for discounts on their post paid bill to
stay in the network, if you are taking this for a joke try it for
yourself and you will be successful if you pitch it right.
The bargaining power of customers will only increase if the
existing players and the new entrant keep fighting to expand and
retain their customer base.