Reliance Jio’s `Dhan Dhana Dhan’ scheme under regulatory scanner

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio's latest tariff scheme Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan is under the regulator's scanner and senior executives of the company might be called for clarification, but only if needed, ET Telecom quoted a a senior official as saying on Friday.

''They (Jio) have submitted their new tariff plan to the concerned division. It is under review and we may call them if needed,'' Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) secretary Sudhir Gupta told ET. No time frame had been offered for the review.

The pure-play fourth generation (4G) telco on 11 April announced its latest Jio Dhan Dhana Dhan offer and on Monday, submitted its details to the telecom watchdog for a scrutiny, as required under rules.

Under the 2002 amendment of the Telecom Tariff Order (TTO) 1999, telcos need to submit their plans within seven days of implementation to ensure consistency with relevant regulatory principles in all respects, which included IUC compliance, non-discrimination and non-predation.

''If we do not find any violation of the regulatory principals in the new plan, we will record it for our reference and there would be no further communication,'' Gupta added.

Under Reliance Jio's new offer, users would get 1GB data per day for Rs309 and 2GB/day data on a payment of Rs509 for 84 days for Prime members, who had paid a one-time fee of Rs99

Meanwhile, according to commentators, the landscape of the Indian telecom industry had changed completely over the past decade with the rise of smartphone usage or the switch from older 2G networks to high-speed 3G and 4G. The call rates had also dropped, and now with Reliance Jio entering the market, the local and national outgoing calls had become completely free with most prepaid and postpaid plans. Mobile data, which had been quite expensive a few months ago, had now become very cheap.