In a setback to Reliance Jio’s big bet on attracting paid subscribers onboard before April 15, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has asked Jio to withdraw its Jio Summer Surprise offer.

Jio has accepted this decision and has said it is in the process of fully complying with TRAI. As soon as it is operationally feasible, Jio will withdraw the three-month complementary offer, over the next few days.

Reliance Jio rolled out the Jio summer surprise offer on March 31 when the deadline to subscribe to Jio Prime ended. Jio had announced an extension till April 15 and additionally rolled out the Jio Summer Surprise. As part of this offer, Jio was offering prime members three months of complimentary services on a recharge of Rs 303 and more.

However, all customers who have subscribed to JIO SUMMER SURPRISE offer prior to its discontinuation will remain eligible for the offer.

This order by TRAI is a huge relief for incumbent telecom players like Vodafone, Airtel and Idea that have been struggling since Jio launched its free services to all last year. Since September 5, 2016, Jio launched to free offers – Jio Welcome offer and Happy New Year offer – under which it gave free data and Jio services to all subscribers.

Once it rolled out the Jio Prime offer for Rs 99, the company declared that  over 72 million customers signed up for the prime offer in just a month

This led to incumbents slashing rates and coming out with offers in a desperate bid to retain subscribers. It has also sparked consolidation in the telecom industry with Vodafone and Idea, and Airtel and Telenor merging services.

Image: Jim Carter