Reliance Jio users have some serious cause for celebration, as the Mukesh Ambani-led 4G VoLTE cellular carrier’s expected to extend the scope of its free services till the end of June 2017, according to people familiar with developments.
After being accused of predatory practices earlier in the year by competing telcos, the upcoming Reliance Jio offer — which will kick in after the end of Happy New Offer at the end of March 2017 — will come at a nominal charge of about Rs 100 for data, with voice services continuing to remain free till the end of June 2017. “We have to start making revenue,” said one person familiar with the matter, according to The Economic Times.
After a record-breaking response to Reliance Jio — where it attracted over 5 crore subscribers in just over 80 days — the newest 4G VoLTE cellular operator on the Indian block now boasts of over 7.2 crore users in a little over 4 months.
Analysts and experts are welcoming this upcoming move from Reliance Jio, claiming it will help the Mukesh Ambani-led 4G VoLTE cellular operator to determine the stickiness of its customer base — really check if people are just interested in hitching a free ride on its services or people are okay with paying some money to continue enjoying Jio services.
This upcoming move — which will be formally announced soon, as per sources familiar with the matter — will help Reliance Jio tweak its pricing formula, make changes to it before launching the 4G VoLTE with no holds barred across the country.
We just hope Reliance Jio’s service scales up well, because already Jio’s 4G customers are seeing dips in download speeds across various hotspots. Hopefully, that should change soon because just last week, Reliance Industries decided to pump in Rs 30,000 crore into Jio for network expansion, in addition to the Rs 1,71,000 crore it has already invested in the 4G VoLTE cellular venture. To further drive adoption of Reliance Jio, Mukesh Ambani’s slated to release 4G VoLTE enabled inexpensive phones in the market very soon, as well.
