Jio impact: Reliance Communications counters 4G data plans from telecom companies; 1GB for Rs 49 and other unlimited offers

Reliance Communications has jumped into the telecom war with new offers on the festival of Holi. In the new ‘joy of Holi’ offer, Reliance has taken on the competitive 4G data pricing from Reliance Jio, Vodafone, Airtel and Idea. In the tariff war between Reliance Jio Prime, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, users have found themselves in a fix among the complicated plans on offer, and now Reliance Communications too, has jumped into the fray. Ever since Reliance Jio announced its plans in India, there has been an interesting tariff war among telecom companies, where many of the rivals like Airtel and Vodafone have accused it of disrupting the market. It remains to be seen how competitive does Anil Ambani’s network gets with brother Mukesh Ambani’s latest sensation Jio. Reliance Comm has slashed the data tariffs and is offering 1GB of 4G data at the price of Rs 49.

In another plan, Reliance Comm will offer 3GB 4G data for Rs 149, and users will also get the option of unlimited On-Net voice calls. There are a couple of other ‘unlimited’ data plans too. The unlimited 3G data plan starts from Rs 99, while the unlimited 2G data plan starts from Rs 49. While Jio offered its calling and data services for free earlier, both the ‘Welcome Offer’ and ‘Happy New Year’ have now ended. This means, now consumers of Jio network will have to pay for the data services in order to avail the offers.

However, the calling will remain free forever, according to Reliance Jio. Reliance Jio’s Happy New Year offer will end on March 31, and along with it, the freebies will end too. To soften the blow, Reliance Jio had rolled out its Jio Prime membership plan from March 1. Notably, the Prime membership plan is an extension of the ‘Happy New Year’ plan itself. Meanwhile, incumbents Airtel, Vodafone and Airtel have launched their own offers.

Jio Prime: Meanwhile, after March 31, users will not get everything for free. In order to continue using the previous ‘Happy New Year’ offer, Jio users will have to pay a subscription fee of Rs 99. Additionally, they will have to shell out Rs 303 every month to continue accessing Jio’s 4G services and also the full bouquet of Jio’s media services for one year.

Similar to the previous ‘Happy New Year’ offer, the Prime membership too will provide users with a FUP limit of 1GB data for each day. Effectively it translates to 30GB data for a month, meaning Rs 10 per day. The last date for enrolling into the Jio Prime membership programme is March 31.

A consumer who still does not have a Jio connection can get on the network on or before March 31 in order to avail the Prime membership offer. Standing true to its promise, Jio has said that the voice calling feature will always be free on Jio.