Mobile data price war in India post Reliance Jio launch

New Delhi: Storming his way into telecom sector, Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man, in September announced the launch of much-talked about Jio 4G service, offering free voice calls and national roaming along with what he touted as the world's lowest data tariff.

Ambani, outlined his re-entry plans through a slew of "affordable" offerings and plans that promise to shake up the country's telecom industry.

Reliance Jio brought out offer data for Rs 50 per GB and monthly plan for as low as Rs 149. Voice calling for Jio users will be free for life, so will be national roaming.

Voice calling will be free on Jio phones for life and post December 31, 10 data plans will be offered starting at Rs 19 a day for occasional users, Rs 149 a month for low data users and Rs 4,999 a month for heavy data users.

On being rebranded as a 'welcome offer', from September 5 Jio started providing unlimited services till up to December 31, after which users have been promised voice calls - both local and STD - as well as roaming free of cost, for life.

Anticipating the shake-up, rival Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and state run BSNL – all joined the price war bandwagon. With consumer at the centre of attraction, mobile networking companies started coming with never-heard-of offers to woo them.

These mobile companies immediately swang into action – some announcing free night data, some announcing mobile data as low as Re 1 while some came with unlimited calling at dirt cheap prices.

However the craze for Jio became such that customers queued for hours for a new SIM card promising free data -- and a dramatic reshaping of the Indian mobile landscape. The craze refuses to die down till date.

After taking the competition in India`s telecom space to a new level, Jio apps beat mobile messaging service WhatsApp and social networking website Facebook on Google Play within a week of its launch.

Telecom operators – Airtel, Vodafone and Idea also got entangled in a dispute involving Jio over inter-connecting points. Jio had accused incumbent players of not releasing sufficient inter-connection ports.

Emerging as the largest broadband operator in the country, Reliance Jio crossed the 50 million subscriber mark in 83 days after its full-fledged 4G services launch.

However, before the expiry of the offer, Ambani once again shook the telecom market by announcing extension of free voice and data offer for existing and new consumers till March 31.

Ambani announced 'Jio Happy New Year Offer' of free data, voice, video and applications till March 31 for new users joining from December 4 as well as the existing ones.

However, the plan comes with a Fair Usage Policy (FUP) which will cap data for Reliance Jio customers at around 1 GB per day.