Reliance Jio has hinted that it will not raise tariffs even after becoming India’s largest telecom company by number of subscribers, and will focus on adding more users, meaning margin stress in the sector for other operators is likely to continue for the coming quarters.
Reliance Jio launched new plans that bundle-in charges for cross-network calls to recover the interconnect usage charges (IUC) of 6 paisa per minute.
The telecom operator will continue with its current pricing despite falling average revenue per user (ARPU) to ₹120 per month, in a bid to add more and more users.
Focus on customers
“Our existing tariff continues as we are focussed on getting more customers. The tariff charge of 6 paisa per minute is not a tariff increase but it’s a regulatory charge that we need to pay to other operators. At ARPU of ₹120, more customers are coming and we ensure that they consume more data. All customers continue to be more active. Our focus is to get more and more customers,” said Anshuman Thakur, head of strategy at Reliance Jio.
Jio’s all-in-one plan with a pricing of ₹222 per month, ₹333 for two months and ₹444 for three months offers 2 GB of data per day, unlimited free calls on Jio network and 1,000 minutes of free calls on other networks. Jio claims that its call rates are 20%-50% cheaper than competition.
Reliance Jio is the world’s second-largest, single-country operator with 350 million users.
