India’s most loved telecom operator Reliance Jio is making news all across the internet after announcing IUC charges for its customers. Jio has announced to charge six paise per minute for making calls to non-Jio numbers.
IUC was initially 14 paise/min in 2011, which was brought down by TRAI to 6 paise in 2017 and was decided to eventually scrap it by 1st Jan 2020. To understand it better, you can watch the following video:
Soon after Jio announced about charging for voice calls, Airtel and Vodafone Idea took to their social media platforms to troll Jio.
Airtel said free is not equal to 6 paise per minute with a caption stating, “For some, unlimited means something else. For us, unlimited voice calls have always meant truly unlimited voice calls. Switch to Airtel now”.
For some, unlimited means something else. For us, unlimited voice calls have always meant truly unlimited voice calls. Switch to Airtel now. https://t.co/Xd7kpsF8ky#AbTohSahiChuno pic.twitter.com/eiiKGzmqs9
— airtel India (@airtelindia) October 10, 2019
Vodafone Idea, on the other hand, tweeted, “Relax, there will be no charges on Vodafone calls to other networks. So keep enjoying what we promised you – truly free calls on Vodafone unlimited plans.”
https://twitter.com/VodafoneIN/status/1182132135928324096
Jio, as always came up with the best reply to these trolls
Who's taking the toll?#IUC #JioDigitalLife #LifeIsBeautiful #JioOnIUC pic.twitter.com/euXjBQo43B
— Reliance Jio (@reliancejio) October 12, 2019
According to TRAI’s performance indicator report for the month of June-19, the average total minutes of outgoing calls on other networks is 200 minutes approximately. So, at 6paise/minute of outgoing calls to other operators, total monthly calls for Jio customers will cost around Rs.10- Rs.20 a month which is still cheaper than any other competitor.
Interestingly, Jio is not earning from these charges. It is just going to pass on the charges to other operators as mandated by TRAI
Now, what can you do as a customer? Because everyone is on Jio and since Jio calls are free what Jio customers can do is- come together and ask TRAI to abolish IUC by signing a petition. You can get more details about this petition and can sign it by clicking here
