Bharti Airtel confirms that its customers will continue enjoying unlimited voice calls without any IUC. The statement from Airtel comes right after Reliance Jio removing the charges on off-net voice calls. First, it was Vodafone Idea which took a jab at Reliance Jio saying it never charged for off-net minutes and will never charge. Now, it is Bharti Airtel which also says 'it never charged the customers separately for IUC.' For the uninitiated, Reliance Jio introduced IUC packs and restricted customers from making unlimited voice calls to non-Jio numbers. All the Jio unlimited combo prepaid plans had a FUP limit of at least 1,000 minutes. With the zero IUC regime becoming effective starting today, Jio has removed the restriction/charges on off-net calls.
Bharti Airtel Obsessed With Delivering Best-in-Class Experience
In a press statement, Bharti Airtel COO, Ajai Puri, said the telco is obsessed with delivering the best-in-class experience to the customers. He further added that Airtel mobile customers are already enjoying unlimited free calls to all networks with the prepaid bundles and also the postpaid plans. As for the matter of fact, Ajai reminds that Airtel never charged its customers separately for IUC taking a jab at Reliance Jio. He reaffirmed that the unlimited calling benefits would not have any changes even with the zero IUC regime.
When Jio started charging IUC back in October 2019, both Airtel and Vodafone Idea also joined the train. However, the incumbents revoked the move just a couple of days later which turned out to be a huge blow for the Mukesh Ambani-led telco. Since Reliance Jio operates on an all-IP network, it urged Trai to implement the zero IUC regime at the earliest. Telcos Airtel and Vi were against the move and Trai favoured them to push back the zero IUC implementation to January 2021.
Reliance Jio is at the receiving end at the moment, but the telco has the upper hand in the tariff plans department. Jio's prepaid plans after the removal of the FUP limit on non-Jio calls are probably the best ones in the industry. Even the Jio Postpaid Plus plans offer a slew of benefits like Netflix Mobile subscription and more data at lower prices.
Also, the removal of IUC will likely help Jio is adding more subscribers starting January 2021. We will have to wait a couple of months to know the impact of IUC removal on subscriber additions.
