Airtel, Idea shares drop as Jio announces tariff plans, Prime membership

Shares of Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular slipped in red after their rival Reliance Jio announced its big plans. 

At 1447 hours, the shares of Idea Cellular were trading at Rs 107.95 per piece, down 0.69% or Rs 0.75 on BSE. At the same time, shares of Bharti Airtel were trading at Rs 365.50 per piece, down 2.70% or Rs 10.15 on BSE. 

In a press meet, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced that Jio customers will now be charged and hence not extending its Happy New Year offer. This announcement should have brought cheer to other telecom operators, but this did not happened.

Here's why? The reason behind it is, though Jio users will now be charged but the company introduced unlimited benefits to its customers by enrolling in the company’s new scheme from March 1 to 31, 2017. 

Also, Ambani said that Jio users will get 20% more data at the same rate as compared to other telecom operators.