New Delhi Dec 31 : Telecom operator Reliance Jio has said that as per directions of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Bill and Keep regime is being implemented in the country from 1st January 2021, thereby ending interconnect usage charges (IUC) for all domestic voice calls.
The company said that “Honouring its commitment to revert off-net domestic voice-call charges to zero, as soon as IUC charges are abolished, Jio will once again make all off-net domestic voice calls free, starting 1 January 2021. On-net domestic voice calls have always been free on the Jio network”.
Jio voice calls to any network in India free from 1st Jan “Jio stands firm on its commitment to make the common Indian the beneficiary of advanced technologies like VoLTE. Jio is a customer-obsessed organisation and cares for every single user. All our users enjoy free voice calls with Jio,” it said.
Jio said it is committed to lay the foundation of a digital society — a society where everything, everyone, everywhere is connected with the best quality service at the lowest price globally and has access to the most advanced digital platforms.
“Through technological innovation, Jio will continue to deliver revolutionary products and services to its users, with a customer-first approach.”
For context, in September 2019, when TRAI extended the timeline for implementation of the Bill & Keep regime beyond 1 January 2020, Jio was left with no option but to start charging its customers for offnet voice calls, at a rate exactly equivalent to the applicable IUC charge.
While doing so, Jio had assured its users that this charge would continue only till the time TRAI abolished IUC charges.
Over the last one year or so, Reliance Jio was charging customers 6 paise per minute for voice calls made to rival phone networks, but compensated subscribers by giving free data of equal value.
Reliance Jio, which added overall 2.22 million new mobile customers, taking its total subscriber base to 406.3 million during October.
In the wireline segment, Reliance Jio added the most subscribers at 2,45,912. It was followed by Bharti Airtel which added 48,397 fixed line connections, VIL with 9,400 subscriber addition and Quadrant which added 5,198 .
