Although Reliance Jio has been the outlier in the telecom industry and has been loved by a majority of the population for the cheap data and the network that it offers, towards the end of the year, the telecom operator has received a dent to that reputation. Chances are, you probably know the reason for this, and it needs no introduction. The introduction of the IUC charge which Reliance Jio is currently charging from its subscribers has created a lot of ruckus among the subscribers and in the telecom industry as well. However, what needs to be mentioned is that the introduction of this new charge has had a lot of unintended consequences as well. While the subscribers migrating to other rival telcos like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea is just one effect of this move, Reliance Jio’s own prepaid portfolio might have also taken a small hit as the effect of this move. Why do we say so? Read ahead to find out.
Reliance Jio Talk Time Benefits Reduced
Now, most of the subscribers are very aware of the Reliance Jio prepaid portfolio and the various data plan that it ships. The most popular data plans by Reliance Jio include the 1.5GB per day plans, 2GB per day plans and more. However, there are more plans that Reliance Jio offers in its portfolio, which include the talk time plans by the telecom operator. Reliance Jio has got talk time plans in its portfolio which start at a small denomination of Rs 10 and go as high as Rs 1,000. But, if you have recharged your number with one of these talk time recharge vouchers from Reliance Jio, the chances are that you would remember that they offer full talk Time benefit. Unfortunately, that is not the case anymore. And, also it’s no coincidence that Reliance Jio’s removal of the full talk time benefit coincides with the introduction of the IUC recharges.
Therefore, it’s worth noting that Reliance Jio has removed the full talk time benefit as it has introduced the IUC top-ups. Now the Rs 10 talk time recharge offers Rs 7.47 talk time, the Rs 20 recharge offers Rs 14.95 talk time, Rs 50 recharge offers Rs 39.37 talk time, Rs 100 recharge offers Rs 81.75 talk time, Rs 500 recharge offers Rs 420.73 talk time and lastly, the Rs 1,000 recharge offers Rs 844.46 talk time.
Reliance Jio Prepaid Plans Now Come with Different IUC Options
What’s interesting to note is that now the popular data plans by Reliance Jio which offer various daily data limit to the subscribers also come with IUC talk time vouchers combined. So, the prepaid subscribers have multiple choices about the amount of IUC recharge that they want to do along with their prepaid data recharge.
IUC Row at the Heart of the New Issue
The IUC war between Reliance Jio and the other private telecom operators like Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel intensified around the time when the Mukesh Ambani led telecom operator reduced its ringing time for outgoing calls to other operators down to 25 seconds from its previous 45 seconds limit. That outraged the other telecom operator as it threatened their IUC gains from Reliance Jio. A short while after that, Reliance Jio made the move of introducing IUC charges on their outgoing calls to other operators. This now means that the IUC that Reliance Jio will pay to the other operators will come from the pockets of the subscribers themselves. While the industry had expected Trai to end the 6 paise per minute IUC regulation by year-end, it is now likely that Trai might extend the shift to a zero-IUC regime by another couple of years.
