Storming his way into the telecom industry, India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani today announced free voice calls and free national roaming along with rock-bottom data prices on his new Reliance Jio network that will debut on September 5.
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There is no doubt that the launch of Reliance Jio is likely to transform the Indian telecom sector with the announcement of free voice calls and affordable data packs. Devoting an hour of his speech at the RIL’s 42th Annual General Meeting, the billionaire industrialist said Jio is targeting 100 million users in a shortest possible time. They are expected to increase the package with free voice calls to meet the Jio’s free voice calls and roaming services for users, with data priced at one-tenth of the prevailing market rates.
India is the second most populated country int he world and has always had pretty cheap voice plans, but the data plans were far too expensive for the common user.
Reliance Jio’s entry will lead to a tariff war in the Indian telecom space.
The operator’s 4G network now covers 1,800 cities and towns and over 200,000 villages, according to the company.
Reliance Jio has been engaged in a stand-off with the existing cellular operators on the points of inter-connect or ports required for connecting calls and SMS between two operators.
“The era of paying for voice calls is ending”, said Ambani. Thus the base price of the devices which will use the Jio network is very low and most suited for Indian pockets.
“Jio is a dedication to that Digital India dream of the Prime Minister, his vision for the 1.2 billion people of India”, he had said. A set of apps that Jio offers will be free for active subscribers till December 2017, Ambani said. Company’s also announced the lowest data plan in the world which is Rs. 50 per GB.
RIL’s exhaustive plans are making India’s telecom operators rethink over their tariffs.
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A consumer JP Morgan said: As the commercial launch of Reliance Jio is coming nearer, the tariffs of other operators are dropping at faster pace bundled with free calling under some high-value plans.
