Mumbai: Reliance Jio, for the first time, will charge its customers 6 paisa per minute for calls outside its network but will compensate the charges with equal value of data.
The decision has been taken owing to the uncertainty over the revision of sunset clause that slashed the interconnect usage charge (IUC) to 6paisa per minute from 14 paisa per minute in 2017.The rates would have remained applicable till Jan 2020, but telecom regulator TRAI has floated a new consultation paper to ascertain if the regime needs to be extended.
The 6 paisa charge will remain in place till the telecoms are required to pay their rivals for the mobile phone calls made by their customers, Jio said.
Justifying the move, Jio said it has paid Rs13,500 to its rival telecom companies since 2017 as IUC charges and the new charges are aimed at recovering the IUC losses. However, calls to landline phones and Whatsapp, Facetime and other similar platforms will not be charged under the new plan.
In view of the new charges, customers will have to buy IUC top-up vouchers. Overall, there will be no increase in tariff as an equivalent value of data based on IUC consumption, Jio said.
Currently, Jio users are charged only for data, while mobile calls across the country are free.
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