Last month Jio had introduced 4 new plans of denominations 222/333/444/555 offering 2GB of data per day bundled with 1000 minutes (3000 in the case of 555) of Jio to non-Jio off-net calls. the 222 plan has a validity of 28 days, the 333 plan has a validity of 56 days whereas the 444 and 555 plans both have a validity of 84 days. all plans also come with 100 SMS per day and complimentary subscription to Jio apps.
Now Jio has silently revised the Rs.149 plan to include 300 minutes of bundled Jio to Non-Jio off-net calls. Any calls made to non-Jio mobile numbers beyond the bundled 300 minutes will be chargeable at 6p/min. Along with the bundling of off-net minutes, Jio has also reduced the validity of this plan by 4 days and the revised validity of this plan is now 24 days. The plan continues to offer 1.5GB/day data, truly unlimited calling for Jio to Jio and to landline numbers and bundled 100 SMS/day and complimentary subscription to Jio apps.
To recall, Jio was forced to go back on its promise of free voice calls for life, in the backdrop of TRAI reconsidering the scrapping of IUC from January 2020. Jio had based its promise on the grounds of TRAI adhering to the timeline of the scrapping of IUC and for India to move from ‘calling party pays’ regime to the ‘bill and keep’ regime like the more advanced nations.
In its submission to TRAI’s consultation, Jio has accused the incumbent operators of continuing to use outdated inefficient 2G voice technology to earn in the name of IUC at the subscribers’ cost, while the incumbent operators have rubbished Jio’s allegation by claiming that a huge chunk of rural subscribers continue to use 2G feature phones and thus shutting down the network is not feasible. Jio continues a net payer of IUC while the incumbents remain a net gainer of IUC.
Hey Esmail, comments can’t be seen in non amp version. I select only telecom section from the main menu and after selecting it the amp page becomes non amp and comments can no longer be seen. But in amp page comments can be seen.
Did TRAI hinted anything about zero IUC before the launch of jio on 5th September 2016?
As far as my knowledge is concerned, I think TRAI hinted to shift to zero IUC in 2017.
So why jio promised lifetime free calling in the first place?
No matter how big a jio fan you are these questions will surely arise.
I know that jio wants to pressurise TRAI to shift to zero IUC regime by negating avoid’s IUC income. But as a normal customer we are least bothered about these things and thus it’s against customers’ interest.
Esmail, your thoughts?
They probably had an internal assurance from a high level TRAI office which is quite possible for a behemoth company of RIL’s stature. But anyway even when they started charging 6p/min to non jio mobile numbers, the existing benefits continued for those who had recharged before the date when the new tariff came into effect so they are not legally accountable for it.
As for the incumbent operators providing free outgoing for offnet numbers, the Jio subscribers are free to port out to the incumbent operators. Though they are promising that they won’t charge separately for outgoing offnet calls, they make no promise saying that they won’t increase the overall tariff denomination of these bundled plans.
Yes avoid would surely increase price of the packs. They’re just waiting for the IUC verdict by TRAI.