Reliance Jio has announced to take money for calling, giving a big shock to its customers. Jio customers will now have to pay to talk on the phone. According to a Jio statement, Jio’s customers will have to pay 6 paise per minute to call another company’s network, although calling from Jio to Jio’s network will be free as before.
At the same time, Jio has said that it assures its 35 crore customers that the 6 paise per minute charge on outgoing off-net mobile calls will only continue until TRAI terminates the IUC as per its current regulation.
We will share all the data with TRAI so that it can understand that zero is in the interest of IUC users.
Currently IUC fee is 6 paise per minute
This entire matter is related to the interconnect usage charge. IUC is the amount paid by one mobile telecom operator to another. When customers of one telecom operator make outgoing mobile calls to customers of another operator, the IUC has to be paid by the calling operator. These calls between two different networks are known as mobile off-net calls. The IUC charges are set by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and currently it is 6 paise per minute.
400 million missed calls on Jio network everyday
Airtel and Vodafone-Idea’s 35-40 million 2G customers give missed calls to Jio customers due to free voice calling on the Jio network and excessive tariffs on the 2G network. Jio network receives 25 to 30 million missed calls daily. Jio should have received 65 to 75 million minutes of incoming traffic from 25 to 30 crore daily calls (missed calls) on Jio from other networks.
Plans of Rs 10 to Rs 100 released
Jio will also issue top up vouchers ranging from Rs 10 to Rs 100 for calling on other companies’ networks. 124 minutes calling can be done on the other network in the plan of 10 rupees. At the same time, 249 minutes will be available in 20 rupees plan, 656 minutes in 50 rupees plan and 1,362 minutes in 100 rupees plan.
Customers will get free data in exchange for top vouchers
At the same time, Jio is giving free data to its customers in exchange for this top voucher. 1 GB data with 10 rupees plan, 2 GB data with 20 rupees, 5 GB data with 50 rupees and 10 GB data with 100 rupees plan.