Reliance Jio Infocomm’s 4G is overwhelmingly data-centric model. It operates a Single technology network with energy-efficient equipment, and extensive deployment of battery power-backups as against DG sets.

Jio has also avoided ‘loading’ expenses, through use of multi-band antennas and mostly single-RAN equipment. Furthermore, we reckon Jio’s energy cost per site is c.15% lower compared with Rs17-18K incurred by Bharti/Idea. Finally, Jio’s capex in domestic fiber (backhaul and inter-city) and purchase of international bandwidth (sub-sea) will help it minimize lease line and internet connectivity charges

Of the 92K sites in use currently, Jio owns 40K sites incurring monthly ground rent of Rs5-7K. Additionally, Jio is paying (below-market) tower rental of ~Rs15K on 35K sites leased from RCOM, and a market rate of Rs30K on remaining sites. Jio will incur Rs30K+ rental on incremental coverage sites, unless it decides to build more of owned-sites