Reliance had made some huge announcements about Jio 4G yesterday including free voice calls for all to any network and no roaming charges. Along with that, the company also announced its welcome offer till December 31st 2016 and various tariff plans which will go live after.
Now as the dust settles, we have some more information on the Jio 4G plans and the 'unlimited' offer which starts September 5th.
More Info: Reliance Jio 4G is not that cheap, here's what you will be paying
The unlimited data offer is capped at 4GB per day of high speed 4G data after which the speed will be throttled to 128kbps. So technically it's still unlimited, but at slower speeds it would be barely usable. This was not the case with the Preview Offer, as during that you were able to download as much data as you wanted at high speed.
You would be able to use Unlimited Night Data part of your tariff plan (live from Jan 2017) from 2AM to 5AM in the night which is a bit strange given that other players consider 12AM to 6AM as night hours.
Moreover, unlimited messaging will also be capped at maximum 100 SMS per day (national + local), and this cap would remain even after the tariff plans go live on January 1st 2017. The Jio 4G offer document with distributors also says that you would need to do periodic zero value recharges to keep the service active till the end of the year. This would enable you to keep using the unlimited data, voice, messaging and other features.
Although this may sound disappointing, but given that this is a free offer I wouldn't complain much. Reliance is still using this welcome offer time to test its services and gather feedback on the interconnect with other networks. This is the first time a national network is going live at the same time everywhere, especially one that has been built from the ground up.
Data cap will be applicable to Jio 4G preview Users as well.
Now, for Jio 4G Preview users, you will be enrolled into the welcome offer as well with 4GB daily data cap and speed throttling. But there a good thing there, even if your preview period was going to expire you it will now be extended till the end of the year.
There is a lot of fine print we need to go through before we herald this as the second coming of Christ. In view of recent developments Reliance Jio 4G isn't looking as cheap compared to Airtel and Vodafone. But we would reserve judgement till the fog settles.
If you missed any of the announcements from yesterday's Reliance AGM, please check the article here for more details on plans, pricing and other information.
