After offering free services for six long months, Reliance Jio is finally charging consumers with the all new 'JioPrime' membership scheme. Days after Jio introducing the new scheme, incumbent operators including Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular came out with their offerings matching Reliance Jio. Some hours later, Jio hit back at them by further sweetening the deal with 'But One Get One' Offer.
Under the 'Buy One Get One' offer, Jio is giving additional data to consumers whoever recharges with Rs. 303 and Rs. 499 before March 31, 2017. For users whoever goes for the Rs. 303 plan, they will get additional 5GB of data, whereas for Rs. 499 plan, users will get additional 10GB of data along with standard 2GB of data per day. But, the major question is: Why did Jio even introduce the 'Buy One Get One' offer, when they are providing attractive plans in the form of Rs. 303 and Rs. 499?
Jio, on March 1 claimed that their servers crashed due to the overwhelming response for the JioPrime subscription plan. But, that doesn't seem to be true now because several people are not interested in enrolling under JioPrime membership scheme, which apparently made Jio to further attract the consumers by offering more data than others.
According to a survey conducted by TelecomTiger in the areas of New Delhi, they have visited nearly 20 retail and Jio stores to check out the response for their JioPrime plan, and the result will amaze you to the core. The report claims as "Employees at the Jio Centres told us they were hopeful that about 50-60% of the total subscribers would register for prime membership. However, the shops not owned by Reliance Jio said that only about 30-40% of the free customers would retain their services once it becomes paid. It is possible that many subscribers who bought SIMs from these shops are registering online for paid services."
The same report also cites that most of the people are not interested in getting the JioPrime membership plan and that's because other operators are already matching Jio's Rs. 303 plan. "Both Airtel and Vodafone had improved services, while Jio’s quality of services was still an issue," claims the report.
BK Syngal, the telecom expert in India, speaking to the same publication also gave his words: “Existing high-end customers have inertia, and they will shift to a competitor only when there are some compelling reasons such as very low quality of their existing Operator or very high quality of competitor or big price difference. The fact that Jio started offering ‘Buy One Get One Offer’ to its customers within a few days of registration for its paid services shows its desperation. It is a clear sign of nervous.”
That clearly explains the whole scenario. Analysts also claim that Jio will lose its consumers when they start charging and that seems to be true. What is your take on this issue? Let us know in the comments section below.
