While it was earlier announced that Reliance Jio will continue to offer free data and voice services on its VOLTE network until March 31st, 2017. That date has now been shifted to June 30th, 2017. With a swelling pool of subscribers and most phones offering dual-sim compatibility these days, Jio has managed to rake in almost 72 million subscribers since launch. However, it is still not the primary connection for a majority of its subscribers and this new plan has been designed to retain customers who would’ve otherwise gone back to their original service provider, once the free services ended.
Under this new tariff plan, voice calls will continue to remain free, while subscribers will need to shell out a nominal amount of Rs. 100 for data services, once the existing offer ends on March 31st, 2017. Apparently, the new plan will allow Jio to test subscriber loyalty and provide pricing insights, for when it starts normal services at market rates. It still isn’t clear though as how much data would be offered at that price and if there would be any additional carriers to this offer. This move comes in the wake of Jio’s rivals slashing tariffs down to less than half, where all of them now offer free or additional data with existing and new packages.
Reliance Industries has pumped in an amount of $25 billion until now in this communication services venture. However, an additional amount of $4.4 billion will be injected in the coming days, which will boost the network infrastructure to offer as promised services.