Reliance Jio will most likely extend the free services beyond March 31, 2017. According to Rajiv Sharma, telecom analyst at brokerage HSBC, Reliance Jio will most likely decide to extend freebies by few more months beyond March 2017. This is because of the aggressive pricing by the existing telecom operators such as Vodafone and Airtel.
Recently, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani had extended the free Reliance Jio “Welcome Offer” till March 31, 2017. To avoid violation of rules laid down by TRAI, Ambani trickily renamed the Welcome Offer to Happy New Year Offer.
The “Happy New Year Offer” has been active from December 5. Moreover, all the existing customers under Welcome Offer will be migrated to the new offer from January 1 with a cap of 1GB download limit per day.
Likely decision to extend Reliance Jio free offer based on trends
If you scan through the Telecom based news reports, you will know that Vodafone and Airtel have slashed the 4G rates to the extreme by offering free double data and free voice calls. The trend will continue with the Christmas and Republic Day around the corner. Meanwhile, Idea also announced the launch of free voice calls offers. Moreover, BSNL will launch a new plan in January as we reported a few months back.
Interestingly, the competitors have introduced new plans within a week of Happy New Year Offer announcement. Hence, the analysts are of the opinion that all major players are closely watching the developments surrounding Reliance Jio.
Experience Reliance Jio with useful apps
Basically, Reliance Jio provides everything from news, music, and films under one umbrella. You need to get a free Jio SIM from your nearest Reliance outlet. Although the company says the offer is free, the retail stores charge Rs. 100 for one SIM. There are reports that few local shops are charging Rs. 500 for one Jio SIM. You need a smartphone with support for 4G VoLTE. The newly launched smartphones such as Le 2 are fully compatible with Reliance Jio.
In addition to free voice and video calls, SMS and 4G data, the Reliance Jio offers a wide range of apps such as JioPlay, JioOnDemand, JioBeats, JioXpressNews, JioSecurity, JioDrive, JioMags, and JioMoney. You can download all these apps directly from MyJio app. For example, JioXpressNews provides curated news reports from a wide range of news portals separated by various categories.
Beginning January 1, you will be able to download content via 4G data only at 1GB per day instead of the currently available 4GB limit. If you cross the 1GB limit, the speed of the connection will be reduced to 128Kbps for the remaining day. The speed counter will be reset at 12 AM every day.
That being said, you can experience Reliance Jio for free till March 31, 2017. The question here is as to whether the service will be extended beyond March 31. Although we don’t have any official confirmation regarding this matter, there is a possibility of extension beyond March 31 under a new offer name.
