On Wednesday, Reliance Jio announced that it will start charging its customers 6 per minute for voice calls made to users of another telecom network. This would have no doubt come as a surprise for Jio subscribers who have been enjoying free voice calls so far. Jio, which entered the Indian telecom market with a bang a few years ago and created a major tariff war ever since said on Wednesday that it was “compelled” to charge its users 6 paise/minute.
HIGHLIGHTS Of Reliance Jio New Charges:
- Jio has started charging its users 6 paise/minute for voice calls to other networks.
- Jio to Jio and Jio to landline calls will remain free.
- Jio is offering IUC plans that come with data benefits to ensure there is no increase in tariff for customers.
Blaming the decision on “regulatory uncertainty” related to inter-connect payments (IUC), Jio said it would rescind the move only when regulator Trai dismantles the IUC payments and makes call-termination charges zero. IUC charges are the money that a mobile company pays to others for connecting its calls.
In a statement Wednesday, the Mukesh Ambani-led telco, which had promised to keep all voice calls free, said it was “compelled” to start charging its over 350 million users to recover the 6 paise a minute interconnect usage charge (IUC) it pays to other telcos, till the regulator brings the fee down to zero. But it will compensate its users by giving additional data, to ensure no “effective increase” in tariffs for its customers. Calls from Jio to Jio, to landlines and those made over apps such as Whatsapp, will remain free.
All Jio customers who want to make a voice call to either Vodafone Idea or Airtel will have to buy additional top-up vouchers of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100, for additional IUC minutes.
SBICap Securities’ head of research Rajiv Sharma said Jio’s decision to recover IUC from consumers may have a cascading effect in pushing up tariffs indirectly. “Airtel and Vodafone Idea could easily respond to Jio’s move by hiking voice rates, finally ending the era of free voice tariffs,” he said.
A senior industry executive said Jio’s move gave the other two telcos a good opportunity to raise tariffs as well.
Under the new regulations, a reliance Jio subscriber calling someone using a different operator like Airtel or Vodafone-Idea will be charged 6 paise per minute till the time you keep ringing. The 6 paise per minute charge will be made through IUC top-up vouchers.
Jio is offering four new IUC plans that also come with additional data benefits in order to ensure there is no increase in tariff for customers.
Jio will provide following top-up vouchers for customers:
- The Rs 10 plan offers 124 IUC minutes to non-Jio numbers and 1GB additional data.
- The Rs 20 plan offers 249 IUC minutes and 2GB data.
- The Rs 50 plan offers 656 IUC minutes and 5GB data
- The Rs 100 plan offers 1,362 IUC minutes and 10GB data.
