Reliance Jio: Subscribers Can Continue Making Free Outgoing Calls on Existing Plans

Earlier this week Reliance Jio faced public outcry for its choice of charging six paise per minute on outgoing calls from Thursday made to other networks. Now, the Mukesh Ambani owned telco has declared that it will continue to offer free outgoing call benefits to non-Jio numbers for all customers who have recharged on or before October 9. Earlier the telecom company claimed that the new voice charge would be at the prevailing Interconnect Usage Charge (IUC) rate that has been fixed by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for mobile operators enabling inter-networking outgoing calls. To compensate for additional charges for Jio voice calls that are imposed on customers, the operator has decided to provide an additional 1 GB data on every R. 10 spent.

Reliance Jio has announced through its official Twitter account that for all customers who have recharged on or before October 9 will continue to get free call benefits on outgoing calls. However, benefits will be granted until the expiry date of the existing Jio plan.

This means that you can make free outgoing calls from your Jio number to other mobile networks until your existing plan expires. Later, you need to recharge with one of the new IUC top-up vouchers to make off-net outgoing calls post the expiry of your plan.

So, customers can make free outgoing calls from Jio number to other mobile networks until their current plan expires. Then, customers will be asked to recharge with one of the new IUC recharge coupons to continue with outgoing calls outside the network after your plan expires.

Earlier this week Reliance Jio announced four IUC top-up vouchers -- ranging from Rs. 10 to Rs. 100. These vouchers offer up to 1,362 minutes along with as much as 20GB data entitlement. The new top-up vouchers are needed irrespective of which Jio plan you have to avail outgoing calls to non-Jio numbers.

Although Reliance Jio mentioned that the charge on off-net outgoing calls would remain until the time TRAI moves to a zero termination charge regime that is expected to take place starting January 1, 2020.