Reliance Jio extends free services to 31 March

Reliance Jio Infocomm, which has garnered a little over 50 million subscribers in the last three months, has extended its free services till March 2017. The company, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), also complained of 900 crore calls blocked by incumbents during this period.

"Thank you for trying Jio, using Jio, improving Jio and loving Jio. We hope that with Jio, your #digital life is beautiful," RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said in his address on social media.

During the past three months, Reliance Jio Infocomm has acquired more than 50 million subscribers, he said, adding Jio is the fastest-growing technology company, not only in India, but also in the world.

"In the first three months, Reliance Jio has grown faster than Facebook, WhatsApp or Skype," Ambani said.

Under Jio Happy New Year Offer, customers will get 30 times the average usage on other networks free till March 2017. During this period, customers will also be able to test-drive digital recharge, billing experience, using JioMoney wallet.

About 80 per cent Jio users consume less than 1 GB of data daily, which is 1 GB per day and is 30 times the average usage on other networks.

In 83 days, since the company launched operations on 5 September, Jio has added 50 million customers on its 4G LTE network. On average, a Jio customer uses 25 times more data than the average Indian broadband user.

Reliance Jio ?has signed-up more than 6 lakh customers every single day for the past 3 months, which was enabled by e-KYC. KYC helped the company in providing services in under 5 minutes.

At present, Jio has successfully rolled out eKYC across 2 lakh outlets in India, which in perspective is nearly equal to the total number of ATMs in the country.

"We are in the process of doubling this network, to 4 lakh digitally-enabled outlets, by March 2017," he added.

However, the customer love was not reflected by competition, he said, adding in the last 3 months, nearly 900 crore voice calls from Jio to the networks of three largest competitors were blocked.

This has resulted in the benefits of Reliance Jio's "superior technology" being denied to customers due to anti-competitive behaviour of incumbent operators.

However, the customer love was not reflected by competition, he said, adding in the last three months, nearly 900 crore voice calls from Jio to the networks of three largest competitors were blocked.

Over the past months, the call block rate has come down from over 90 per cent nearly 20 per cent as of yesterday

On 5 September, RIL rolled out its $20-billion telecom venture Reliance Jio with free domestic voice calls and roaming and data tariffs well below those of its competitors. The services were to be free till 31 December 2016.

After December, Jio customers will get all domestic voice calls, including roaming for free.

Reliance Jio's data plans start from Rs149 per month (0.3GB data) to Rs4,999 per month (75GB). There is also a Rs19 pack which gives 0.1 GB. There is unlimited 4G access at night on a these plans. A special student plan gives 25 per cent more data.

The effective rate on the Jio network is 5paise per MB or Rs50 per GB. The more data you use, the lower the rate. "We have provided lowest 4G rates in the world,'' Ambani said.