Voice calls made by Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd subscribers to rival networks within India will be free from January 1, India’s largest mobile operator said by market share on Thursday.
The decision to stop charging for calls comes when the telecoms regulator ordered that telecommunications companies will not have to pay so-called termination charges to rival networks as of January 1. The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) set the termination rate at 6 paise per minute until December 31.
“For context, in September 2019, according to Trai’s instructions, the billing and maintenance regime will be implemented in the country as of January 1, ending IUC (interconnection use charge) for all calls from national voice, “Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Jio’s parent, said in an exchange presentation.
Under the billing and maintenance regime, telecom operators do not have to pay termination charges to each other.
On Thursday, Jio said he was forced to charge his customers for off-network voice calls at a rate equivalent to the applicable IUC because Trai postponed the implementation of the zero IUC regime for one year until December 31, 2020. .
“This was expected, since Trai ordered zero-IUC charges from January 1, ’21 and RJio (Reliance Jio) had promised that this charge would only be until IUC is not zero,” said Hemang Jani, head of capital strategy: brokerage and distribution. , Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd.
Jani said that Reliance Jio’s revenue impact would be “negligible” as it already offers 1,000 minutes of free off-network calling to its users.
“While doing so, Jio had assured his users that this charge would continue only until Trai abolished the IUC. Today, Jio has delivered on that promise and has made voice calls off the grid free again, “RIL said in the statement.
Reliance Jio was launched in September 2016, after which the Indian telecom sector witnessed a massive outage with the telecom company’s almost free voice and data services. Jio’s offerings not only helped him gain a significant market share, but also led to a declining revenue situation and mounting debt for rivals Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Idea Ltd.
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