Reliance Jio’s FTTH service is live in the country, and the subscribers are getting the JioFiber connections to their homes. However, a lot of subscribers still continue to enjoy free services from Reliance Jio for their broadband connections and the reason is not that Reliance Jio is extending the preview offer for its new customers, but instead, it has something to do with Reliance Jio’s billing structure. As per an ET Telecom report, Reliance Jio currently does not have a stable billing method, and the Mukesh Ambani led telecom operator is busy shifting to another billing system which is yet to stabilise. This is the reason why Reliance Jio is not able to charge its customers for the broadband services although the telecom operator commercially launched the JioFiber service on September 5 itself, meaning that it’s almost two months since the service has been commercially launched.
Reliance JioFiber Customers Still Enjoying Free Services
As per the people aware of the matter, this shift to a new billing system for Reliance Jio could mean that the telco might be delayed in the monetisation of its fibre-broadband service. That is not it. The sales staff and the marketing people in the company are yet to be fully trained to sell the company’s broadband plans which are much different than what the other telecom operators or broadband service providers offer. Reliance JioFiber service provides broadband plans which start from Rs 699 per month and go as high as Rs 8,499 per month. These plans ship high-speed data with speeds from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps. Not only this, the Reliance JioFiber plans come bundled with lots of add-ons like a Jio 4K Set-Top Box, OTT app subscriptions, VR experience, video calling, voice calling, low-latency gaming and more.
On Friday, Reliance Industries Limited, the parent company of Reliance Jio will release its July-September results which would also include the financial performance of the telecom operator. The Reliance Jio customers who had signed up for the service even before the commercial launch of the JioFiber are not currently being billed by Reliance Jio. It is worth noting that in the preview offer period, or when Reliance Jio was testing its broadband services, approximately 5 lakh people had joined in and taken a Reliance JioFiber connection. These 5 lakh people have not yet been approached by the Reliance Jio representatives for billing. Not only this, the new customers of Reliance JioFiber who have deposited Rs 2,500 security deposit are enjoying the services for free as well, similar to the customers who had joined earlier.
How Long Will the Free Party Last?
One of the sources said about this, “Actual billing of JioFiber services will take a while to start as the company is moving from a pure mobile services billing system to a converged one, capable of billing customers for both 4G mobility and home broadband services.” Another person familiar with the matter said that technically the Reliance JioFiber customers were being billed, but they did not have to make any payments. It was being done so that the company can keep on running checks on its billing system so that once actual billing starts, there are no discrepancies.
It is also interesting to note that some customers of Reliance JioFiber continue to enjoy the preview offer from Reliance Jio, under which they were enjoying 100 Mbps speed and 1100GB of data owing to the 40GB bonus packs which Reliance Jio had provided to these subscribers. The subscribers who have been on the broadband connection for months now are also not being asked to pay anything as of now. However, experts on the matter have said that further delay in the billing of these subscribers might hurt revenue opportunities for the telecom operator which has been witnessing falling Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) since the last seven quarters.
