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#BoycottJio trends after Jio announces it’ll charge for calls to other networks

Jio’s decision came as a shock to all its subscribers because Mukesh Ambani, since the launch of Jio, has maintained that voice calls will forever be free.
#BoycottJio trends after Jio announces it’ll charge for calls to other networks
#BoycottJio trends after Jio announces it’ll charge for calls to other networks
Written by:
TNM Staff

On Wednesday, Mukesh Ambani’s disruptive telecom major Reliance Jio made an important announcement – it will be charging users 6 paise per minute for voice calls made to other networks. This came as a shock to all Jio subscribers because Mukesh Ambani, since the launch of Jio, has maintained that voice calls will always be free.

According to Jio, Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC), which is currently at 6 paise was supposed to be brought down to zero from January 2020. Until now, Jio has been paying IUC from its own resources to Airtel and Vodafone-Idea, while offering free voice calls to its customers.

So far, in the last three years, Jio claims to have paid nearly Rs 13,500 crore as NET IUC charges to other operators. Jio claims that due to ‘exorbitant tariffs’ charged by other networks, Jio receives 25 to 30 crore missed calls on a daily basis from Airtel and Vodafone-Idea. This is because customers using Airtel and Vodafone-Idea who must pay to make outgoing calls would prefer to receive a call back from Jio, as its outgoing calls were free.

“This huge missed call phenomena converts the incoming calls to Jio into outgoing calls from Jio to other operators. The 25 to 30 crore missed calls per day should have resulted in 65 to 75 crore minutes of incoming traffic to Jio. Instead, the call back made by the Jio customers results in 65 to 75 crore minutes of outgoing traffic,” Jio said in a statement.

However, it also claims that there is regulatory uncertainty with TRAI revisiting the amendment that promised reduction of IUC, compelling Jio to charge the 6 paise per minute for calls from its customers.

What is now being seen as a rollback of the promise of free voice calls has led to the internet fuming over Jio’s decision. Hours after the announcement, #BoycottJio started trending on Twitter.

“Mukesh Ambani promised at the time of Jio launch that they will never charge customers for calls. But, it seems promises are made to be broken,” one user tweeted.

“Everything is planned. Give free data Increase number of users. Make them addicted to internet. Extend free data, 1 phone 1 family to 1 phone 1 member, encourage portability, charge small amount, create monopoly, increase charges, Charge every service, No free usage (sic),” another user tweeted.

In no time, scores of memes too, made their way to Twitter mocking Ambani and Jio for the announcement and the backlash that followed.

The other two major telecom players, Vodafone and Airtel too, wasted no time in using this opportunity to win disgruntled Jio customers.

“Relax, there will be no charges on Vodafone calls to other networks. So, keep enjoying what we promised you - truly free calls on Vodafone unlimited plans,” Vodafone tweeted on Thursday.

Airtel too is making good on the opportunity and has been replying to tweets of Jio customers inviting them to port to its network.

Jio

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