Reliance's Rs 0 JioPhone drags Bharti Airtel, Ideal Cellular shares in red

Shares of telecom operators like Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel plunged on Friday as new entrant Reliance Jio made public its new telecom plans including a free 4G feature phone -- Jiophone.

At 1217 hours the shares of Bharti Airtel were trading at Rs 405.15 per piece, down 3.48% or Rs 14.60. At the same time, shares of Idea Cellular were trading at Rs 89.70 per piece, down 5.43% or Rs 5.15 on BSE. 

On Friday, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries (RIL) announced Jio 4G VoLTE feature phone free of cost or at cost of Rs 0. The announcement was made at company's 40th Annual General Meeting. 

However, to avoid the misuse of new offer, Jio said that it will collect a 100% refundable security deposit of Rs 1500 which will be refundable after three years. 

This is not the first time, Jio's offer announcement has impacted Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular's share price. 

Since the official launch of Jio in September last year, the telecom data war in India heated up. To retain market share and give competition to Jio, the telecom operators are left with no other option but to search for merger. 

Vodafone India and Idea Cellular had already announced merger plans.

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