Mukesh Ambani's 25-Minute Jio Speech Wipes Out Rs 3000 Crore in Market Cap For Rivals. Again

Telecom stocks fell sharply today as Reliance Jio extended its free voice and data offer to subscribers till March 31. Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani made the announcement, what he called the Happy New Year offer, in a 25-minute address to Jio stakeholders. 

Mr Ambani said that from December 4, new Jio subscribers will get free data and voice offer till March 31. And existing Jio subscribers will be auto-migrated to the "Happy New Year" offer.

Immediately after Mr Ambani's announcement, telecom stocks took a beating. Airtel shares were trading at Rs 324 at around 1.30 pm, when Mukesh Ambani started his speech. They fell to Rs 318.3 by 2 pm, losing a total market value of Rs 2,276 crore.
 
Similarly, Idea Cellular shares, which were trading at Rs 76.60 at 1.30 pm, fell to Rs 74.20 at 2 pm, losing total market value of Rs 792 crore.
 
Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have underperformed the broader markets in the past six months as analysts expressed concern over rising competition and high debt levels.

On September 1, when Mr Ambani's had announced Jio launch, Airtel and Idea had lost nearly Rs 16,000 crore in market value. 

Mr Ambani said today that Jio has become the fastest growing technology company in the world, with 5 crore subscribers signing up in three months.  Mr Ambani also announced the launch of Jio Money Merchant Solution to facilitate cashless transactions.

Since Jio's launch in September, Bharti Airtel along with other incumbent operators have been engaged in a row with the new entrant over providing additional points of connectivity between networks.

Earlier in September Bharti Airtel had asked the telecom regulator Trai to find a way to curb the "massive asymmetric traffic" and ensure that receiving networks are not "abused by tsunami of free traffic" from Reliance Jio.