Reliance Jio on Thursday announced that it would once again make off-net domestic voice calls free on its network starting January 1, 2021. The operator will restart its earlier practice over a year after it started charging its subscribers 6 paise a minute to make voice calls to other mobile networks. The fresh decision came as a result of the ‘Bill and Keep' regime that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is implementing in the country from January 1 that will end interconnect usage charges (IUC) for all domestic voice calls.
Honouring its commitment to revert off-net domestic voice-call charges to zero, as soon as IUC charges are abolished, Jio will once again make all off-net domestic voice calls free, starting 1st January 2021. On-net domestic voice calls have always been free on the Jio network,” Reliance Jio said in a statement.
The company announced that Jio has delivered on that promise and made off-net voice calls free again.
“Jio stands firm on its commitment to make the common Indian the beneficiary of advanced technologies like VoLTE. Jio is a customer-obsessed organisation and cares for every single user. All our users enjoy free voice calls with Jio,” it said.
As per the telecom regulator’s directions, ‘Bill and Keep’ regime is being implemented in the country from January 1, 2021, thereby ending IUC charges for all domestic voice calls, the statement read.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in September 2019 extended the timeline for implementation of the Bill and Keep regime beyond January 1. The Ambani-led firm Jio said it was left with no option but to start charging its customers for off-net voice calls at a rate exactly equivalent to the applicable IUC charge.i
Withhe update, subscribers on Jio will be able to make free voice calls to any mobile network in the country — just like other telcos. This is likely to make the competition tougher for other telcos including Airtel and Vi (formerly Vodafone Idea) as Jio will be able to offer more competitive recharge plans. Other operators will also no longer get any charges from Jio for terminating voice calls from its network.
ગુજરાતી માં વાંચવા અહીં ક્લિક કરો.
In September 2019, the TRAI extended the timeline for implementing the Bill and Keep regime beyond January 1, 2020. That extension resulted in the arrival of the six-paise outgoing call charge on Jio for other mobile networks in October last year.