Reliance Jio customers will now have to pay for phone calls made to other mobile phone operators.
“Due to the undergoing regulatory policy changes for mobile-call-related charges, Jio is compelled to recover ICU (Interconnect Usage Charge) charge nor Non-Jio mobile voice calls. With effect from your next recharge, post October 10, all calls to non-Jio mobile numbers will be charged at 6 paise/minute,” a statement by the company said on October 9.
The telecom player added that it will compensate the subscribers by giving free data of equal value.
“To compensate our customers for the cost of these additional IUC top-ups, we will offer additional 1GB of data for every 10-rupee spent, absolutely free. This will ensure no increase in tariff for customers,” Jio said.
“So, for all recharges done by Jio customers starting today, calls made to other mobile operators will be charged at the prevailing IUC (Interconnect Usage Charge) rate of 6 paise per minute through IUC top-up vouchers till such time that TRAI moves to zero termination charge regime,” Jio added in the statement.
Jio said the 6 paise per minute charge will not apply on all Jio to Jio calls, all incoming calls, Jio to landline calls and calls made using WhatsApp and similar platforms.
In the statement, Jio said the charge will remain in place till the time telecom operators are required to pay rivals for mobile phone calls made by their users to other mobile operators’ network.
This will be the first time that Jio users will pay for voice calls. Currently, Jio charges only for data, and voice calls to anywhere in the country and to any network are free.
