Jio has announced that it will not charge Jio to non-Jio calls in India starting January 1st, 2021. This announcement comes close on the heels of the latest statement by the telecom regulator in the country. TRAI has announced that it will implement ‘Bill and Keep’ regime for domestic calls from January 1st, 2021, thus bringing the interconnect usage charges (IUC) regime to an end.
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Jio said in a statement, “Honouring its commitment to revert off-net domestic voice-call charges to zero, as soon as IUC charges are abolished, Jio will once again make all off-net domestic voice calls free, starting 1st January 2021”. Here are all details of the latest development from the Mukesh Ambani-led telco.
All Jio domestic calls will be free starting January 1st
Jio will offer free off-net voice calls starting January 1st
As mentioned before, the free voice calling to other networks from Jio comes as the result of TRAI ending the IUC (interconnect usage charges) regime in the telecom sector from January 1st in favour of the ‘Bill and Keep’ regime. The new ‘Bill and Keep’ regime — also known as net payment zero — is the arrangement between two telecom operators, where each network agrees to terminate calls from the other network at no charge.
Notably, TRAI had extended January 2020 timeline for lifting the IUC charges earlier this year, which forced Jio to continue charging for off-net calls within India. The top telco started its services in the country by offering free calling to all networks, which was its USP and disrupted the Indian telecom market.
With the IUC charges being eliminated from January 1st and Jio announcing free calls to all network, we can expect the telco to reign the industry for coming months. The telco is now banking on the affordability of its plans and highlighted the same by stating that its popular recharges are much cheaper compared to similar plans offered by competitors.