On Friday, Reliance Jio announced the August launch of the JioPhone, a 4G feature phone that the firm plans to make available to users, effectively for free. On Tuesday, Airtel announced that its net profit declined to Rs367 crore for the three months ended 30 June from Rs1,462 crore in the year-ago period. The company’s third straight decline in quarterly profit was caused by Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, which has embarked on a price war since its launch last September. Airtel has not taken a call on shutting its 3G network yet, Vittal clarified. Despite the entry of high-speed 3G and 4G, 300 million Indian customers still use 2G networks, primarily to make voice calls.

Source: Mint July 26, 2017 13:02 UTC