Jio justifies charging users for offnet calls after Airtel, Vodafone make calls truly free

Reliance Jio believes it provides users with five times more free outgoing off-net (Jio to other networks) calls than an average customer requires. Reliance Jio also acknowledges that customers are unlikely to pay for the calls. Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel removed FUP capping starting December 6, which essentially makes Reliance Jio the only telecom service provider that is charging users for off-net calls beyond a FUP limit. Reliance Jio also states that its new plans are offering up to 25 per cent more value than that of rivals.

"Entitlement for off-net calls in Jio's 'All in One Plans' is more than 5 times of what an average customer uses as per industry data and consequently, an average Jio customer is unlikely to have to ever pay for off-net calls," Reliance Jio said in a statement.

"We reiterate that Jio plans offer up to 25 per cent higher value than comparable plans of other operators," Reliance Jio added.

Reliance Jio is offering free calling FUP limit of 1,000 minutes, 2,000 minutes, 3,000 minutes and 12,000 minutes for 28-day, 56-day, 84-day and 365-day cycle, respectively. Both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea earlier capped outgoing calls to other networks at 1,000 minutes in plan with 28-days validity, 3,000 minutes in 84-day validity and 12,000 in 365 days validity plan. Beyond this limit, customers were required to pay 6 paise per minute for outgoing calls made to other networks.

"We heard you! And we are making the change. From tomorrow, enjoy unlimited calling to any network in India with all our unlimited plans. No conditions apply," Bharti Airtel said in a tweet on Friday.

READ | Airtel lifts FUP cap on voice calls, offers ‘truly’ unlimited calling with new plans

Vodafone Idea also made a similar announcement on Twitter.

"Here are unlimited possibilities with free unlimited calling, even to other networks," Vodafone Idea tweeted with note that the changes are effective from December 6 onward.

READ | Vodafone Idea joins Airtel to offer ‘truly’ unlimited calling plans, will Jio follow?

The move to raise mobile services tariff follows the Supreme Court's judgment on adjusted gross revenue in October. Bharti Airtel has posted a staggering Rs 23,045 crore net loss for the second quarter ended September 30, due to provisioning of Rs 28,450 crore in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling on statutory dues. According to government data, the liabilities in the case of Bharti Airtel add up to nearly Rs 35,586 crore, of which Rs 21,682 crore is licence fee and another Rs 13,904.01 crore is the spectrum usage charge dues.

The government is currently not considering any proposal on waiver of penalties and interest on outstanding licence fee based on adjusted gross revenue, or on extending the timelines for telecom companies to pay up their statutory dues.

(With PTI inputs)