RELINCE JIO 4G GRAHKO NE MARCH BAD PAN UNLIMITED DATA MALSE...READ THIS NEWS
With the commercial launch of Reliance Jio services on September 5, 2016, the telecom operator introduced ‘Welcome Offer’ with free voice and data benefits up to December 31, 2016. Jio had hoped that by then it would be able to resolve the interconnection issues with other carriers. Failing to do that, the company extended the ‘Welcome Offer’ till March 31, 2017 by relaunching it as the ‘Happy New Year Offer.’ Now, if latest reports are to be believed, the company is working on a new tariff plan that could further extend the validity of freebies till June 30, 2017.
To avail the new tariff plan, subscribers may have to pay a nominal rate to enjoy Jio’s services for another three months, people and analysts familiar with developments told ET. Under the current ‘Happy New Year Offer,’ users get unlimited, high-speed data with capping of 1GB per day, after which speeds are reduced down to 128Kbps. However, there is no word on what sort of data benefits the new plan would offer.
So far, incumbent telecom operators have termed the current free offers as ‘predatory’ and to curb that, Reliance Jio may charge about Rs 100 for accessing data services, while voice calls will remain free for lifetime. “We have to start making revenue,” a person familiar with developments told the publication. The move, to charge a nominal fee, would also help Jio test how many subscribers are actually willing to pay for its services as against those who have a connection only because it is free. BGR India has reached out to Reliance Jio for a statement. ALSO READ: Reliance Jio’s 4G feature phone could be a masterstroke, here’s why
In four months since its commercial launch, the free data offer has already garnered 72.4 million subscribers. Feeling the heat from Reliance Jio, top telecom companies such as Vodafone, Airtel and Idea have been forced to slash their voice and data plans. Under certain talk plans, Vodafone and Airtel have also been offering unlimited local and national voice calls. With Jio further extending its freebies, incumbent telecom operators may be forced to offer even more affordable data plans to compete with the new operator. ALSO READ: Reliance Jio added 19.6 million subscribers in October 2016, TRAI data reveals
However, despite having over 72 million customers, Jio is still not the primary telecom operator for the users, which is something that is hurting the company even more. Jio has also been battling with other telecom operators over points of interconnect. According to the latest statistics released by the operator, 175 calls failing out of every 1,000 calls from Jio to Airtel, where QoS regulations mandate that not more than five calls out of every 1,000 calls can fail.
Even after disrupting the telecom space and having over 70 million subscribers, the company doesn’t seem to be done yet.Jio is reportedly eying the feature phone market, and is expected to launch a VoLTE enabled phone under Rs 1,500. The alleged photo of the phone was recently leaked, showing off dedicated buttons forJio apps like MyJio, JioTV, JioCinema and JioMusic. With the company banking on its app eco-system and content services, getting these apps on a feature phone with access to unlimited live TV, movies on demand and music streaming could turn out to be a masterstroke for the telecom operator.
With the commercial launch of Reliance Jio services on September 5, 2016, the telecom operator introduced ‘Welcome Offer’ with free voice and data benefits up to December 31, 2016. Jio had hoped that by then it would be able to resolve the interconnection issues with other carriers. Failing to do that, the company extended the ‘Welcome Offer’ till March 31, 2017 by relaunching it as the ‘Happy New Year Offer.’ Now, if latest reports are to be believed, the company is working on a new tariff plan that could further extend the validity of freebies till June 30, 2017.
To avail the new tariff plan, subscribers may have to pay a nominal rate to enjoy Jio’s services for another three months, people and analysts familiar with developments told ET. Under the current ‘Happy New Year Offer,’ users get unlimited, high-speed data with capping of 1GB per day, after which speeds are reduced down to 128Kbps. However, there is no word on what sort of data benefits the new plan would offer.
So far, incumbent telecom operators have termed the current free offers as ‘predatory’ and to curb that, Reliance Jio may charge about Rs 100 for accessing data services, while voice calls will remain free for lifetime. “We have to start making revenue,” a person familiar with developments told the publication. The move, to charge a nominal fee, would also help Jio test how many subscribers are actually willing to pay for its services as against those who have a connection only because it is free. BGR India has reached out to Reliance Jio for a statement. ALSO READ: Reliance Jio’s 4G feature phone could be a masterstroke, here’s why
In four months since its commercial launch, the free data offer has already garnered 72.4 million subscribers. Feeling the heat from Reliance Jio, top telecom companies such as Vodafone, Airtel and Idea have been forced to slash their voice and data plans. Under certain talk plans, Vodafone and Airtel have also been offering unlimited local and national voice calls. With Jio further extending its freebies, incumbent telecom operators may be forced to offer even more affordable data plans to compete with the new operator. ALSO READ: Reliance Jio added 19.6 million subscribers in October 2016, TRAI data reveals
However, despite having over 72 million customers, Jio is still not the primary telecom operator for the users, which is something that is hurting the company even more. Jio has also been battling with other telecom operators over points of interconnect. According to the latest statistics released by the operator, 175 calls failing out of every 1,000 calls from Jio to Airtel, where QoS regulations mandate that not more than five calls out of every 1,000 calls can fail.
Even after disrupting the telecom space and having over 70 million subscribers, the company doesn’t seem to be done yet.Jio is reportedly eying the feature phone market, and is expected to launch a VoLTE enabled phone under Rs 1,500. The alleged photo of the phone was recently leaked, showing off dedicated buttons forJio apps like MyJio, JioTV, JioCinema and JioMusic. With the company banking on its app eco-system and content services, getting these apps on a feature phone with access to unlimited live TV, movies on demand and music streaming could turn out to be a masterstroke for the telecom operator.