Good news for Jio users: No need to buy top-ups to cover increased tariff

The telco has announced three new plans that come bundled with the 6-paise-per-minute charge imposed on voice calls to other networks, so subscribers will not have pay anything additionally

Telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm on Monday announced three new plans to address subscribers’ concerns over its decision to raise tariff by 6 paise per minute on calls to rival telecom networks. After the telco imposed an interconnection usage charge (IUC), its customers had been demanding a simple and hassle-fee package so that they did not have to buy top-ups to cover the additional tariff.

The newly announced plans — Rs 222, with a validity of one month; Rs 333 with a two-month validity; and Rs 444 with three months’ validity — come with 1,000 minutes of free off-network calls. This is different from Jio’s earlier offer, where it allowed all voice calls free of charge. The new packages come bundled with the 6-paise-per-minute charge imposed on voice calls, so subscribers will not have pay anything additionally. The offer also comes with 2GB of unlimited data per day, plus free SMS and apps. 

Effectively, the new plans will mean that Jio customers will not have to buy Rs 80 recharge coupons to be able to utilise their entire quota of 1,000 minutes, as had been necessitated after the imposition of IUC. Only a very small proportion of subscribers actually use the full quota of voice calls, say Jio executives. The average off-network calls per user per month is 200 minutes.  

Jio also claims that the new plans are 20-50 per cent cheaper when compared with competitors’.