Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said that the free services under Reliance Jio Welcome Offer have been extended till March 31 as part of its Jio Happy New Year Offer, among other announcements related to the telecom venture.
“Starting December 4, 2016, every new Jio user will get the data, voice, and full bouquet of the Jio apps free till 31 March 2017,” Mukesh Ambani said about the Reliance Jio extended Welcome Offer. “This is the Jio Happy New Year Offer. All our existing 52 million users will continue to enjoy the Welcome Offer till 31 December, and then automatically be signed up for the New Year Offer. No need to buy a new SIM.”
During the Reliance Jio extended offer announcement, Mukesh Ambani also announced that users will now have a daily FUP limit of 1GB under the Reliance Jio Happy New Year Offer, which if exhausted will result in slower speeds.
The reason behind the FUP change in the Reliance Jio Happy New Year Offer, Mukesh Ambani said, was that 80 percent of its current users consumed 1GB data per day, while 20 percent consumed disproportionately higher amounts – which ended up congesting the network. The Reliance Jio Welcome Offer had daily FUP limit of 4GB.
After the launch of Reliance Jio in September, the company has seen a mixed reception, with long queues for SIM cards, and many complaints about slow speeds.
Mukesh Ambani elaborated on this, saying that the reason was the free Welcome Offer. “With 52 million customers, taking full advantage of the free Welcome Offer, it has caused slowdowns, but only on 8 percent of our towers,” he said. “And 92 percent of our customers and towers have been experiencing high data speeds.”
Since then, reports had suggested that the Welcome Offer – wherein all Jio services were being given completely free – might be extended to March 2017, as Jio claimed that customers faced “quality of service issues due to interconnection congestion”, and told Trai that until “we are in a position where we can delivery the quality of service as desired by the Jio management, it will be unfair to charge the customer.”
