Reliance Jio Extends Prime Membership Till April 15 As Free Era Ends

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. extended its deadline to opt for its Prime membership by 15 days to avoid service disruption for customers transitioning to its paid services.

The operator has signed up 7.2 crore subscribers through its customer privilege programme, it said in a press release. Existing Reliance Jio subscribers or new customers who become a Prime member by paying Rs 99 can avail the new offer by buying a Rs 303 recharge, before April 15 and get an additional three months of complimentary services.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio, which disrupted the Indian telecom market with its six-month-long free data services, will start charging customers from Saturday. Jio triggered a tariff war and consolidation among rivals, which fear losing market share to the new entrant.

Reliance Jio launched in September last year offering free voice and data services up to 4GB (gigabytes) a day till the end of the year. It announced another free data plan till March 31, but capped it at 1GB a day.

By February, the company said it had signed up over 100 million customers. This was possible through an Aadhaar-based registration for SIM cards, which involved almost no paperwork at all.

Ambani in February unveiled the operator's tariff plans, including the special Jio Prime membership, which would extend the ongoing data offerings for one more year at Rs 303 per month.

For those not opting for Jio Prime, the operator claimed that it would give 20 percent more data than incumbent operators at the same prices.

More Towers Coming

In a separate letter to Jio customers, Mukesh Ambani said that the company had over 100,000 mobile towers, and is looking to double the number in the coming months.

The letter said that his investment of Rs 2 lakh crore on Jio is the largest greenfield investment anywhere in the world.