RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani is expected to announce the much-awaited RJio tariff plans and commercial launch date at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Thursday.
From the past few months, Reliance Industries (RIL) has been testing its 4G Jio service on a pan-India scale but has been accused by numerous telcos for offering commercial services ‘under the guise of testing’. With the announcement of the tariff plans, the conflict between Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the industry giant is expected to end.
Sources familiar with RJio’s operations have confirmed that the AGM will witness the launch of tariff plans and commercial launch date. The company is also expected to submit its tariff plans with regulatory authority TRAI, which will be effective once users finish the free three-month voice and data offer.
With the revolutionary offer, RIL is looking forward to introducing next gen networks (NGN) which uses IP data packets for audio and voice calling instead of regular public switched telephone network (PSTN).
Not only will Jio's 4G plan bring down data costs but its Internet-based calling service will offer better quality in comparison to PSTNs, which make up most of the country's telephony architecture.
To combat this disruptive offer, other telcos are also introducing cheaper 4G data plans. Recently, Bharti Airtel slashed 4G and 3G mobile internet charges by up to 80 per cent to as low as Rs 51 per gigabyte (GB) under a special scheme. Other telcos such as Vodafone and Idea are also offering lucrative plans to match RJio’s scheme.
Though the Jio 4G offer has been criticised by other telcos for flouting certain rules, the idea of introducing Internet-based telephony can prove massively lucrative for users.
