Free service over, Reliance Jio to charge for Prime membership from April 1

Mangalore Today News Network

Mumbai, Mar 31, 2017 : Reliance Jio, Mukesh Ambani’s telecom venture, which has created a storm in India’s telecom industry with its free internet services, will stop giving out Prime memberships to its users and start charging customers from April 1, to its competitors’ relief.

 

The company has already signed up about 60 million Prime customers, and claims to have more than 100 million users on its network, most of which are data users. That would also make Reliance Jio the company with the largest number of broadband data customers.

Bharti Airtel on December 31, 2016 had 54.9 million data customers (of which mobile broadband customers were 37.7 million), after it witnessed a sequential drop of 12.4% in straight quarters. Idea Cellular had 32.6 million users (the company does not disclose its 4G subscriber base), down from 34.8 million, in the previous quarter.

Prime is a special membership that Reliance Jio is offering to all its customer who take Jio connections before April 1, at an additional cost of Rs 99, for a year. The membership will be valid only until March 31, 2018 -- after which the company will take a call on if it wants to extent the service. Till then, all Prime members can avail the benefits.


Members get additional benefits in form of additional data, at the same price as a non-Prime user. For example, for Rs 128, with 28 days of validity, both Prime and non-Prime users get unlimited free calls. But when it comes to data, a Prime user gets 2GB of data, while a non-Prime user gets 1GB. For Rs 303, with 28 days validity, a Prime user gets 28 GB of data (capped at 1GB per day), while a non-Prime user gets 2.5 GB at 4G speeds.

Reliance Jio started offering Prime memberships to customers from March 1, to reduce churn once it would start charging customers. The offer was valid to all its customers who had already taken up Jio’s connections and the once who would take them in the days to come.

Already, 60% of Jio users have availed the membership -- that is close to Rs 594 crore in revenue at Rs 99 per Prime membership. According to sources, the number of people rushing to stores to upgrade to Prime has surged.


Once Reliance Jio starts charging customers, it might also end up having one of the highest average revenue per user (ARPU) among all telecom operators in the country. For a month’s usage, a customer will have to pay a minimum of Rs 161 (at Rs 149 for 28 days). A large chunk of them would be paying Rs 324 for a month (at Rs 303 for a 28 days pack).

Airtel’s ARPU was Rs 172 on December 31, and Idea Cellular’s was Rs 157 -- which includes revenue from voice service, which Reliance Jio offers for free.
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