Mukesh Ambani on Thursday broke open the widely-awaited details of his Reliance Jio venture, billed as the country’s largest 4G network. Long queues of customers recently waiting to get a Jio SIM card have demonstrated the hype and anticipation around the newest offering from Reliance Industries.
Ambani, 59, made these announcements:
- Reliance Jio will not charge for voice calls or for roaming calls within India. Customers should be charged for voice or data, but not both, said Ambani.
- Reliance Jio’s data prices are roughly one-fifth of what customers have been charged so far - one gigabyte of data will cost Rs 50.
- Jio will not follow the industry practice of blackout days - occasions like Diwali when free SMS offers are not applicable because the volume tends to be too high.
- Starting Monday, anyone can sign up for Reliance Jio services - and no charges will apply till December 31.
- Competitors have complained that Jio, while claiming to be in beta phase, has used scarce fourth-generation of 4G airwaves to poach customers by offering them free-of-cost trials.