Jio voice calls no longer free, 6 paise/min to be charged to call other telco subscribers

A sad day for Jio users as Reliance Jio Infocomm has started charging for voice calls made to subscribers of other telcos to account for the termination charges it pays its rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. This move, according to some analysts, can possibly give rise to an increase in tariff in the telecom sector after years of stiff competition.

Jio’s decision to recover IUC from consumers may have a cascading effect in pushing up tariffs indirectly, analysts observe. Airtel and Vodafone Idea could easily respond to Jio’s move by hiking voice rates, finally ending the era of free voice tariffs.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Mukesh Ambani-led telco, which had promised to keep all voice calls free, said it was “compelled” to start charging its over 350 million users to recover the 6 paise a minute interconnect usage charge (IUC) it pays to other telcos, till the regulator brings the fee down to zero. But it will compensate its users by giving additional data, to ensure no “effective increase” in tariffs for its customers. Calls from Jio to Jio, to landlines and those made over apps such as WhatsApp will remain free.

All Jio customers who want to make a voice call to either Vodafone Idea or Airtel will now have to buy top-up vouchers of Rs 10, Rs 20, Rs 50 and Rs 100, for additional IUC minutes.