Jio to charge calls to rival networks
NEWDELHI: Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, India’s most profitable telecom operator, will start charging for calls made to rival networks at 6 paise a minute, reneging on a promise to keep voice calls free for its customers and signalling the end of a bruising tariff war.
The operator said it “has been compelled most reluctantly and unavoidably” to do this following the decision of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to review the date for scrapping interconnect usage charge (IUC) from January 1, 2020, which has led to regulatory uncertainty.
“For all recharges done by Jio customers starting today, calls made to other mobile operators will be charged at the prevailing IUC rate of 6 paise per minute through IUC top-up vouchers till such time that Trai moves to zero termination charge regime,” Jio said on Wednesday.
That Jio will start charging for outgoing calls for the first time will come as a major relief to Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Idea Ltd, which have been left bleeding financially as a result of the rock-bottom tariffs offered by the Mukesh Ambani-controlled company.
“This is an indication that the price war is close to its end. This bodes well for both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea as they have been hoping for an upward movement in tariff levels for long,” a Mumbai-based telecom analyst said on condition of anonymity.
Jio, however, will compensate customers by providing free additional data of equivalent value based on the customer’s IUC top-up voucher consumption so as to ensure there is no increase in tariff.
The move comes three weeks after Trai on September 18 floated a fresh consultation paper to see if there is a need to revise the applicable date for scrapping IUC, given the continuing imbalance in inter-operator traffic.
IUC, which has been set at 6 paise a minute, is levied by mobile networks handling incoming calls from rival networks.
Scrapping IUC or reducing it would benefit an operator with more outgoing traffic than incoming calls.