NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio Infocomm has extended the benefits of its Prime membership plan to non-members at a much lower data usage rate per month across all plans as the Mukesh Ambani company begins charging consumers after six months of doling out freebies.
While prepaid users can choose from daily, monthly and year-long plans, ranging from Rs 19 to Rs 9,999, post-paid users have three plans atRs 303, Rs 499 and Rs 999. In both categories, users can opt for boosters when they exhaust their high-speed data limits.
From April 1 to March 31, 2018, Jio’s current users and those who come on board between March 1 and March 31 will continue to get 1 GB of data a day plus all of Jio’s apps for Rs 303 a month and a one-time charge of Rs 99.
The benefits differ for Prime and non-Prime members, the former being Jio subscribers who opt for Prime membership by paying a one-time charge of Rs 99 by March 31, 2017. The telco has offered booster plans starting at Rs 51 per GB to Rs 301for 10 GB for all users, with the exception of one plan of 100 MB at Rs 11 for prepaid users.
While Jio has begun charging consumers for data, keeping voice free, rival telcos have reiterated their view that Jio’s tariffs are unsustainable in the long run. Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal said Jio’s tariffs were very aggressively priced, but “unsustainable for the industry.” Jio’s move also signals the return of the rate war as Mittal said Airtel will respond and come up with more packages.
Industry experts said the idea behind offering Prime membership was to convert its 100 million users amassed over 170 days into paying subscribers, especially after it reached the milestone with the lure of free voice and data, coupled with access to Jio apps.
The difference between Prime and non-Prime memberships widens for longer validity periods, effectively offering non-members data at higher prices.
For instance, in the Rs 303 post-paid plan, a Prime member gets unlimited data usage for 28 days, with 4G data usage of 30 GB, and from there on 1GB data per day as per fair usage policy, besides free voice calls to all networks. However, a non-prime member gets only 2.5 GB 4G data for 28 days. The difference is starker for prepaid Prime users who will get 2 GB less than their post-paid counterparts at the same tariff level for the same duration, with same fair use policy terms and free calls.
While prepaid users can choose from daily, monthly and year-long plans, ranging from Rs 19 to Rs 9,999, post-paid users have three plans atRs 303, Rs 499 and Rs 999. In both categories, users can opt for boosters when they exhaust their high-speed data limits.
From April 1 to March 31, 2018, Jio’s current users and those who come on board between March 1 and March 31 will continue to get 1 GB of data a day plus all of Jio’s apps for Rs 303 a month and a one-time charge of Rs 99.
The benefits differ for Prime and non-Prime members, the former being Jio subscribers who opt for Prime membership by paying a one-time charge of Rs 99 by March 31, 2017. The telco has offered booster plans starting at Rs 51 per GB to Rs 301for 10 GB for all users, with the exception of one plan of 100 MB at Rs 11 for prepaid users.
While Jio has begun charging consumers for data, keeping voice free, rival telcos have reiterated their view that Jio’s tariffs are unsustainable in the long run. Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal said Jio’s tariffs were very aggressively priced, but “unsustainable for the industry.” Jio’s move also signals the return of the rate war as Mittal said Airtel will respond and come up with more packages.
Industry experts said the idea behind offering Prime membership was to convert its 100 million users amassed over 170 days into paying subscribers, especially after it reached the milestone with the lure of free voice and data, coupled with access to Jio apps.
The difference between Prime and non-Prime memberships widens for longer validity periods, effectively offering non-members data at higher prices.
For instance, in the Rs 303 post-paid plan, a Prime member gets unlimited data usage for 28 days, with 4G data usage of 30 GB, and from there on 1GB data per day as per fair usage policy, besides free voice calls to all networks. However, a non-prime member gets only 2.5 GB 4G data for 28 days. The difference is starker for prepaid Prime users who will get 2 GB less than their post-paid counterparts at the same tariff level for the same duration, with same fair use policy terms and free calls.
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