Airtel to take on JioMeet with its own video conferencing app

Bharti Airtel is planning to launch its own video conferencing app to take on the recently launched JioMeet and others like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts. Reports state that this app will be for start-ups and enterprises.

According to a report in Economic Times, a person ‘close’ to Airtel’s plan said that they are going to launch several enterprise-grade products one of which is a unified video conferencing tool. While it is going to be launched for start-ups and enterprises, Airtel might roll it out more broadly depending on the kind of reception it gets, the source said. 

At this point in time when the India has banned 59 Chinese apps and is actively pushing the ‘Vocal for local’ agenda, an in-house video conferencing tool might do well. This bit of news coming in just days after JioMeet was rolled out to all users is indicative of the fact that Airtel’s app will be taking on Reliance Jio’s new offering. 

The source said that Airtel's video conferencing tool will be more “differentiated” from others in the market right now like MS Teams or Google Hangouts and Zoom.

Airtel will be focusing more on localisation and security and will be counting on those to be the key differentiators. The source explained that customers do ask questions about their data and one of the main benefits of the app made by Airtel will be data localisation which will also translate to better video and voice quality for video calls.

Airtel’s video conferencing tool will work on smartphones and desktops both and will use the latest AES 256 encryption along with multiple authentication layers for security, the source said. 

This is not this telco’s first foray into this space. Airtel bundles a range of video conferencing solutions along with 4G, MPLS and FTTH connectivity. It also has partnerships with Zoom, Cisco WebEx and Google Hangouts Meet under its ‘Work@Home’ solutions for enterprises.