Mukesh Ambani offers free domestic calls for life, 80% cheaper net access

MUMBAI: RIL’s second coming in telecom was always expected to be disruptive, but chairman Mukesh Ambani still managed to stun customers and competitors alike on Thursday with an announcement that Reliance Jio would offer free voice calls and dirtcheap 4G data services on its network. The statement could sound the death-knell for voice tariffs and prove a gamechanger for the industry.

“The era of paying for voice calls is ending,” Ambani told shareholders at the AGM of Reliance Industries. “From September 5, India will change forever,” he said, announcing the date of Jio’s formal launch.

Jio’s data packages are priced at nearly one-fifth of what is charged by existing mobile operators. “We Indians have come to appreciate and applaud Gandhigiri. Now we can all do datagiri, which is an opportunity for every Indian to do unlimited good things with unlimited data,” Ambani said.

Jio’s tariff offerings, spread across 10 main plans, promise data prices as low as Rs 50 per GB against the average Rs 250 per GB charged by incumbents today. The RIL chief said that this could go down to as low as Rs 25 for those who would use it extensively.

“We have price points starting from Rs 19 for the occasional data user, to a monthly Rs 149 plan for the light data user, all the way up to a monthly Rs 4,999 plan for the heaviest data user. I believe that these are the absolute lowest data rates anywhere in the world,” he said.

Roaming charges would also be abandoned on the network, Ambani said, adding that porting into Jio can begin with the launch of commercial services.

The combined market value of Airtel and Idea plunged by around Rs 13,000 crore during the 45-minute speech. However, RIL also dipped nearly 3% due to concerns about execution risks and initial losses.