Jio’s home broadband push a limited threat to Airtel; smaller players gain share

NEW DELHI: Smaller home broadband players are continuing to grow even as bigger rivals like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel expand their footprints in the country. According to Motilal Oswal, smaller players increased their market share during the lockdown to 43.2% in August 2020 from 40.5% in April 2020 in the wired broadband segment.

Smaller players generally have a regional presence (in case of metro cities such as Delhi and Mumbai) and contain many LCOs, which provide broadband services along with cable services.

Unlike larger players, these players target low ARPU paying customers and offer pure data connectivity services.

“Moreover, they offer lower speed due to copper-based connectivity and thus the price points are lower. There is an opportunity for both large and smaller players to operate in parallel and grow the market,” Motilal Oswal said in a report.