Jio Fibre Not Impressive Enough? Airtel’s Xstream With Lowered Prices Can Be A Worthy Competitor Predicts BNP Paribas

According to brokerage BNP Paribas, Bharti Airtel’s new converged digital entertainment services platform Airtel Xstream has the potential to effectively compete the Reliance Jio Infocomm’s Jio Fibre that was launched yesterday (5 September), reported The Economic Times.

The brokerage predicted this before the rolling out of Mukesh Ambani’s ambitious home broadband service. It claimed Bharti Airtel’s proactive act to drop the prices of its broadband services could have reduced the foreseeable threat from Jio Fiber.

“We believe Airtel’s current converged digital entertainment platform Xstream is competitive on the pricing and product fronts and to a large extent tackles competition from JioFiber,” BNP Paribas had said.

Airtel had released two Android-based connected devices on Monday (2 September) - an Xstream OTT stick and an Xstream 4K hybrid box at 3,999 each. The hybrid box provides a complimentary 1-year subscription worth Rs 999 to all Xstream content along with a month long free subscription to an HD DTH digital TV services pack.

On the other hand, Ambani’s fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service or Jio Fiber, that is to be rolled out in phases, offers rental plans starting at Rs 699 and going up to Rs 8,499. It aims at providing customers with a range of products and services including a free HD TV set, free voice calls for life from landline, 100 mbps to 1 gbps broadband internet speed at low prices.

Reliance Jio Infocomm, in the recent years, has swept the Indian wireless phone market with its free voice calls and cheap internet rates. This has resulted in big losses to telecom operating players such as Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea. As tycoon Mukesh Ambani now eyes the broadband and TV services market, a threat has ben predicted for the existing service providers.