Jio's explosive entry in the stock market, but will the era of cheap mobile internet end?

India's largest telecom company Jio Platforms is going to enter the stock market on Wednesday. Meta and Google have also invested in this company.

Jio's IPO of Rs 30,213 crore is the largest IPO in the history of India.

Indian stock markets have been going through difficult times for some time. Despite this, Jio's IPO has received an overwhelming response from the world's big fund managers, Indian institutions and small retail investors.

Within hours of the opening of applications for the IPO on October 21, there were more bids than the available shares.

Jio is owned by Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani.

About 50 crore people in India use Jio's cheap mobile data services. Because of this, Jio is counted among the most important companies of India.

However, as fast as the company grew, many controversies were also associated with it.

Jio entered India's already crowded telecom market in 2016.

The company started mobile services at very low rates and connected millions of Indians to the Internet.

But the introduction of Jio also created a huge upheaval in the telecom sector.

There were once 17 companies in the Indian telecom market. Later this market shrank to only three big companies.

Critics alleged that Jio, which had the ability to invest heavily, started a price war in which other companies had to close their businesses.

Recently, Elon Musk also criticized Mukesh Ambani and called him the "real boss of India".

Musk had indicated that Jio is trying to stop his company Starlink from coming to India.

Reliance had rejected these allegations and said that it welcomes the competition from Musk.

Jio may have faced many questions and criticism in the last decade, but its affordable data plans have been the foundation of India's digital revolution.

These schemes helped in creating a huge digital economy in India.

They also played an important role in bringing online payments, food delivery services and e-commerce to the common people in Asia's third largest economy.

Within three years of Jio's launch, customer data usage increased 50 times and data prices fell sharply.

By keeping rates low in this aggressive manner, Jio has acquired around 553 million mobile customers by 2026.

Jio's grip has strengthened in other areas also.

The company's share in India's wireless broadband market is 50 percent and in fixed broadband it is more than 40 percent.

According to brokerage company MK Global, 60 percent of India's total wireless data traffic passes through Jio's network.

The company also says that it has the largest number of 5G customers outside China.

MK Global has described Jio as "India's digital engine".

Analysts say that Jio's entry into the stock market could prove to be a major turning point in its pricing strategy.

Through this IPO, the promoters of the company will reduce their stake by about three percent.

Along with this, it is considered certain that the services being provided at very low rates for many years will end.

Nitya Shah, co-founder of Kamayakya Wealth Management, says, "Jio's era of using cheap rates as a weapon to increase its market share is now coming to an end."

She says, "After getting listed on the stock market, Jio will also have to answer to small shareholders. This will reduce the weight of its reason for deliberately keeping the prices low."

Jio's future growth will no longer depend primarily on adding new customers through affordable plans.

Brokerage company Motilal Oswal has said in a note that the company's further growth will depend on how much more it earns from each customer.

For this, it will be important to move customers to 5G, increase rates from time to time and provide fixed wireless broadband to those homes where fiber has not yet reached.

After Jio's entry into the stock market, the way may open for its competing companies to increase their rates as well.

Currently, these companies fear that if they increase the rates, Jio may attract their customers by offering cheaper services.

If this fear subsides, other companies can also increase the price of their services.

Nitya Shah says, "Vodafone Idea can be the biggest beneficiary of this change."

"This is an opportunity when the company with the weakest financial position in the region can get the strongest support."

Analysts say that if prices increase again, a new phase of customers switching companies may begin in the market.

Price sensitive customers may go for the company whose plan will be the cheapest.

This means that customers may have to be prepared for mobile bill increases.

While customers may have to pay higher bills, Jio's IPO is giving investors an opportunity to bet on the ever-increasing demand for data in India.

With this, investors will also get an opportunity to connect with the growing business of Jio's digital services.

The company also operates in the fields of entertainment, cloud computing, gaming and financial services.

Due to low rates and increasing use of smartphones, India has become the second largest consumer of mobile data in the world.

The average monthly data usage of each Jio customer was 28.7 GB in 2024.

In the year 2026 it will increase to 42.3 GB. That means it increased by 52 percent in two years.

According to some estimates, with the increasing spending power of people, data usage may increase to 65 GB by the end of this decade.

This will help Jio increase its average earnings per customer in the long run.

According to MK Global, "The penetration of most digital services is still very low compared to China and the US. So there is a lot of room for growth."

According to rating agency Moody's, listing in the stock market can increase transparency in the functioning of Jio.

This will also give investors a "more clear market valuation" of the company.

Now Jio is part of Reliance Industries. Reliance's business extends from refining to retail.

The growing and important role of Jio in the Indian economy has increased the enthusiasm of investors.

But there is another big reason for discussion about this IPO.

This is the first IPO brought by Reliance Group in more than two decades.

Reliance started in 1958 with a small business of spices and polyester yarn.

After this the company expanded its business into textiles, petrochemicals, oil refining and then retail trade, telecom and digital services.

Reliance enjoys a special status among small investors due to its record of increasing investors' wealth in the long run.

Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of the Reliance empire, is said to have played a fundamental role in popularizing investing in stocks in the 1980s and 1990s.

Over time, this created a group of investors who were extremely loyal to the company.

Many of these investors also developed a deep emotional relationship with the company.

In the last one year, the share price of Reliance Industries has fallen by almost 20 percent.

Despite this, its long-term record maintains confidence among investors.

"The company has given an average annual return of around 30 per cent for 30 consecutive years," Kranti Bathini of Mumbai-based Wealthmills Securities told the BBC.

"That's why people are hopeful that the same magic can be repeated in Jio's IPO as well."