After announcing an increase in mobile calling and data tariffs, Reliance Jio is now exploring new ways to generate revenue and boost its profitability. As a part of this strategy, the Mukesh Ambani-led company, The Economic Times reports, has started to bill new customers and is asking existing users to select home broadband packs. This essentially means that there won’t be any ‘free fiber’ for home broadband connections.
‘All new JioFiber customers, who’ve put in the Rs. 2,500 refundable deposit, are now being charged in the big metro markets, and commercial billing on a pan-India basis should be operational in a couple of weeks,’ a person with direct knowledge was quoted as saying. Initially, about 500,000 users signed up for JioFiber trials. ‘Existing customers who had opted for the trials are being told that free home broadband services will be discontinued shortly and they need to migrate to specific JioFiber plans to stay connected,’ the report said.
Reliance Jio launched the service in September and JioFiber’s tariff plans range from Rs 699 to Rs 8,499 a month, with speeds from 100 Mbps to 1Gbps. All the JioFiber plans come with free voice benefit, TV video calling, Norton device security for up to five devices. Post exhaustion of the data, the speed in the plans will drop to 1Mbps. JioFiber plans start from Rs 699 in which the company is offering up to 100Mbps. Under this plan, called ‘Bronze’, users have 100GB + 50GB data.
Next is the Rs 849 prepaid JioFiber ‘Silver’ plan in which the subscriber will gets 200GB data and an additional 200GB as a part of the introductory offer. A speed of up to 100Mbps is offered in ‘Silver’ plan. The ‘Gold’ plan offers 500GB of monthly data, and an additional 250GB of data at speeds of up to 250Mbps for Rs 1,299. Next up is Rs 2,499 ‘Diamond’ plan in which 1250GB + 250GB of data is offered at 500Mbps speeds. There is a Rs 3,999 ‘Platinum’ plan in which users get up to 1Gbps speeds for 2500GB data. Jio is also offering ‘Titanium’ for Rs 8,499 in which, users get 5000GB of data and up to 1Gbps speed.