Airtel has launched Xstream! Beats Jio to the punch!
Since Reliance Jio took over the Indian telecom market, other telecom companies had seemed to be left behind. With its drastically low data and call costs, and efficient network service, consumers flocked to Jio at an alarming rate. While the country fell in love with the Ambani flagship, other telcos scrambled to keep with the competition.
With people equipped with 4G networks and an exponential increase of data consumption, the denizens of digital India are ready for higher dosages of digital entertainment. According to statistics India consumes over 1 billion GB data, streams 1.65 billion hours of videos and 2.5 billion minutes of voice calls a month.
Ever ready to make the best of any opportunity, Jio is set to commercially launch its Fiber Broadband services which are said to include a Jio set-top box and gaming experiences on par with consoles, on 5th September. But, another big name in the Indian telecom industry, Airtel launched its own converged digital entertainment platform to counter Jio’s services.
Airtel Xstream aims to deliver diverse digital entertainment options to its users. These will include Live Television, video, music, sports, and news through an OTT smart stick, internet set-top box and other handheld devices.
According to an official statement by Airtel’s Chief Product Officer, Adarsh Nair, Xstream will cater to the needs of the new generation consumer who looks for consistent and converged entertainment across multiple screens and devices, at home or on-the-go. Xstream looks to provide a have-it-all platform for its consumers, with an absolutely wild entertainment catalogue, including hundreds of satellite television channels, tens of thousands of movies and shows in multiple Indian languages and English, millions of songs and access to all of our favourite OTT entertainment apps. Xstream also has the desired aspect of a unified user interface, which allows the user to access it through multiple screens and devices.
The Airtel Xstream Box comes with a price tag of Rs 3,999 and offers a one-year complimentary subscription to all Airtel Xstream app content, in addition to a one-month subscription to an HD DTH pack. The yearly packages start at Rs 999.
With Jio looking to disrupt the telecom and DTH markets with its step up into the digital home entertainment and fiber broadband services, Airtel’s latest launch not only follows quickly on its heels but provides formidable competition to its upcoming product. While Jio promises a free high definition set-top box to users who opt for the annual broadband plans, Airtel offers exclusive all-access benefits, including free access to premium content to its loyalty programme users.
With telco brands fighting over 18 million broadband-connected homes and a whole new generation of consumers, The DTH and Telecom markets are set on a course of substantial growth in India.
