Reliance Jio customers may have some good news in store! While Reliance Jio has been asked by the TRAI to end its ‘Welcome Offer’ by December 3, analysts are of the view that the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom venture may find a way to extend the free service till March 2017! According to a latest Motilal Oswal report, Reliance Jio has indicated that it may extend the free offer, if the need arises. Motilal Oswal analysts have in a new note said, “Mass scale free welcome offer could continue until March 2017 to attract subscriber growth towards the celebrated 100 million mark with RJio’s indicative data pricing at Rs 130-140 per GB.”
Not only that, Citi Research analysts have also reportedly said that Reliance Jio may continue with its promotional offers. While a TRAI directive says that any free services plan cannot extend beyond 90 days, Citi Research analysts have reported Reliance Industries management as saying that there are no restrictions on the number of promotional offers. It appears that Reliance Jio feels that unless it is able to deliver quality service to customers, it is unfair to charge them.
Also read: Reliance Jio fight: Trai for Rs 3,050-crore fine on Bharti, Vodafone, Idea
Recently, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone among others had approached the TRAI against Reliance Jio’s free call service, but since the latter decided to stop offering free services beyond December 3, TRAI did not take any action. “The revised offer of free services by Reliance Jio has been limited to 90 days i.e. December 3, 2016 and therefore is consistent with the guidelines on promotional offers,” TRAI had said. However, Reliance Jio had assured its customers that while it will stop its free services ‘Welcome Offer’ by December 3, those who sign up for it before that date will be eligible for free calls and services till December 31. But as stated above, analysts widely believe that Reliance Jio may find a way to extend its free services till March 2017 to get more people on board.
