Earlier this week, Bharti Airtel declared that it has surpassed two million subscribers of its fixed line home broadband services across India. In due celebration, the private telecom operator has announced 'Airtel Surprises', giving away free, unlimited subscriptions to Airtel Movies along with additional data to existing plans of customers at no additional cost.
The additional amount of data will be credited to the existing customers every month, marking Airtel's efforts to retain its existing users by offering more for same prices. Airtel Movies, meanwhile, will be offered as unlimited access of all five channels to the select users. Airtel's Movies subscription service brings five channels under one umbrella, including free channels of YouTube and Dailymotion, and paid channels of Sony LIV, HOOQ and Eros Now.
Airtel also cited the importance of its high speed V-Fiber network, recently unveiled in India, in its increasing user base. Hemanth Kumar Guruswamy, CEO of Home Networks at Bharti Airtel India, stressed on V-Fiber's increasing range of coverage, and looks at the additional free data as a way to retain its existing users, alongside adding new users.
Ever since Reliance introduced Jio 4G LTE networks in India, Bharti Airtel has been locked in a number of tussles, particularly surrounding Jio's continuing free services. Legal petitions filed to the TDSAT involving TRAI and Jio Infocomm are underway, and it remains to be seen how Bharti Airtel eventually faces the impact of Jio's arrival in India's telecom sector.