Reliance Jio to take on competition with low data tariff

A number of Reliance Digital Xpress outlets across Delhi are said to be receiving Reliance Jio SIM card kits already. A number of them had now revealed the base data tariff of Reliance Jio as mentioned on these SIM kits.

Base data tariffs become applicable when the customer has no data pack enabled. Competitors like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea etc had a base data tariff of 4 paisa/ 10KB. Reliance Jio, however had been undercutting them with a tariff of 0.5 paisa/10KB.

Base voice/SMS tariffs are known to have equal parity with other networks, and with STD calls to cost 2 paisa/second, while local SMS would cost Re 1 local SMS and Rs 5 will be charged per international SMS. Video calls are expected to cost 5 paisa/second.

Jio had not come out with an official word on this, but it was mentioned on SIM card kits. Jio had its work cut out for itself to make a mark on the Indian smartphone market. Marketing was one way to go as Jio services were being offered in public places across Mumbai and at ICC World T20 venues across the country (with Jionet).

Meanwhile, according to a report from UBS, a top global financial services firm, the soft launch of Reliance Jio 4G telecom service as expected by this month's end and the full commercial rollout would happen by December this year.

''Contrary to market belief that Jio has started rolling out 4G SIMs commercially, our channel checks in Mumbai and Delhi suggest that although SIMs have been shipped to the retail outlets, they are not yet available for sale,'' the consultancy said in a report.

''At present, Jio SIM cards are only available to Reliance employees, post its beta launch in December 2015. Our speed test on trial SIM cards in Reliance outlets indicate network speed of 18-20 Mbps versus Vodafone's 4G speed of 8-10 Mbps.''