Reliance Jio ‘New Year Offer’- Free voice and data extended till March 31

Though it might sound exaggerated, it’s nevertheless true that Reliance Jio is the best thing to have happened to Indian telecom sector. The latest entrant to the telecom scene has not only unleashed a phenomenon of ever-increasing offers and discounts from incumbents players, looks like the giant himself has more to offer customers.

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani made a number of announcements about Reliance Jio today including the extension of its free services by another three months till March 2017.

"Starting December 4, 2016, every new Jio user will get the data, voice, and a full bouquet of the Jio apps free until 31 March 2017," he said in a special broadcast. "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."

Addressing stakeholders, Ambani said that Jio has become the fastest growing technology company in the world, with 5 crore subscribers signing up in three months. He confirmed that Jio has signed up 6 lakh customers every day for three months, thanks to eKYC, and said, "On average, a Jio customer is using 25 times the data that an average broadband user consumes."

"We are the fastest growing technology company, not only in India, but in the history of the world," said Ambani, adding, "in the three months, it's grown faster than Facebook, or WhatsApp, and the fastest growing LTE network."

Ambani also revealed 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. Thus, Reliance Jio has announced a new daily FUP limit of 1GB, which if exhausted will result in slower speeds.

In his speech, he also lamented that his company was not getting support from existing telecom operators on connectivity. Ambani claimed that nearly 900 crore voice calls from Jio were blocked by other telcos, and added that Jio thanks the government and TRAI for enforcing the license conditions. He added, "call block rates have come down from over 90 percent to nearly 20 percent yesterday, and we are working with all operators to bring this to within the limit of 0.2 percent."