In a bid to wean away more customers from incumbent operators, Reliance Jio has announced that it will offer free services for another three months to all users who subscribe before April 15. Consumers will have to pay a one-time membership fee of ₹99 and subscribe to the ₹303 per month plan.
RJio had earlier said that its Prime membership offer would be open only till March 31.
Close to 72 million subscribers have signed up already for this offer. However, the company had nearly 100 million users when services being given completely free.
By offering free services for another three months till July, the telecom operator is hoping to bring on board the other 30 million who did not continue with their RJio connection after it went paid.
Announcing the extension, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries, said, “We have heard your voice, and we are extending the deadline for purchasing Jio’s ₹303 (and other) plans till April 15. This extension will provide the necessary breathing room for users to avoid service disruption during the transition from free to paid services.”
Users who do not recharge by the extended date of April 15 will experience degradation and/or discontinuation of services.
“Every Jio Prime member – when they make their first paid recharge prior to April 15 using Jio’s ₹303 plan (or any higher value plan) – will get services for the initial three months on a complimentary basis. Your paid tariff plan will be applied only in July, after the expiry of the complimentary service,” Ambani said.
This means a user will have to pay a minimum of ₹303 plus ₹99 for membership before April 15 and after that he will have to pay only in July.
Adding more towers RJio has created the world’s largest greenfield 4G LTE wireless broadband network, with over one lakh mobile towers. The company is adding another one lakh towers.
“This greenfield investment – of over ₹2 lakh crore – is the largest anywhere in the world. We are acutely aware that we have small pockets of congestion on our network. With our investment in network expansion, you will see a dramatic improvement in service quality in the coming weeks,” Ambani said.