Jio Prime membership opens on March 1: New tariff plans revealed

HIGHLIGHTS

• Reliance Jio said to offer cheapest Prime plan at Rs. 149
• Rs. 499 pack said to offer 60GB data with no daily data limit
• The Jio Prime plans come into effect from April 1

You can subscribe to Reliance Jio Prime from Wednesday, March 1 until March 31. While Reliance Jio had only revealed one new tariff plan when it announced the Prime subscription, a new report claims that Reliance Jio will offer two new monthly plans apart from the Rs. 303 plan announced last week. Reliance Jio will reportedly offer a Rs. 149 pack under which subscribers will receive unlimited voice calls and 2GB 4G data without any daily cap for a month. Another pack will be cost Rs. 499, and will also offer 60GB 4G data with 2GB daily data cap while will offer unlimited voice calls.

To recall, the company last week announced its new Jio Prime subscription plan, which will now charge over 100 million subscribers for data and other services from April 1. Reliance Jio had announced a Rs. 303 per month pack under which existing Jio customers will get unlimited data, calls, text messages, and other services that users get as part of Jio's Happy New Year Offer.

According to a Moneycontrol report citing a CLSA note, Reliance Jio will also offer long duration plans priced at Rs. 999 with a validity of 60 days and data allowance of 60GB, Rs. 1,999 for 90 days with 125GB data, Rs. 4,999 for 180 days with 350GB data, and Rs. 9,999 for 360 days with 750GB. All these Jio Prime plans are said to come with no daily limit.

"As per our discussion with channel partners and retailers, Reliance Jio has revealed more tariff plans under the "Jio Prime Program" that requires one-time membership charge of Rs 99 to be paid before March 31, 2017," said CLSA in a note.

Reliance Jio's new Jio Prime is an extension of the unlimited services offered under the Happy New Year Offer by another year, and every subscriber needs to pay Rs. 99 annual fees for the Jio Prime subscription. Jio Prime subscriptions will kick off from Wednesday and will end on March 31, 2017. After March 31, Reliance Jio subscribers won't be able to avail the bundled services at Rs. 303 per month. The Jio Prime plans come into effect from April 1, 2017, the day the existing Jio Happy New Year Offer expires.

[With Latest Proof] Reliance Jio fiber first impressions in Mumbai with download speeds crossing 93 Mbps

Reliance Jio, the operator which recently crossed the 100 Million subscriber mark, is aggressively making its place in the highly competitive Indian telecom space. The operator during its free services offering single-handedly managed to lift India from the 150th position globally for mobile data consumption to the current number one position. CEO Mukesh Ambani declared that Jio subscribers alone consume as much data as all the subscribers of all operators in USA put together.

The reason why Jio can offer this quantum of data to its subscribers without getting its network choked is because it has Fiber backhaul for its BTS as compared to microwave backhaul used by the incumbent operators which cannot handle this amount of load. Jio recently announced its prime membership from 1st April for its subscribers joining the network on or before 31st March 2017 for a one-time fee or Rs.99.

Also read: Reliance Jio’s Tariff Plan to Improve Industry-Wide ARPU Over Longer Term: Moody’s

Once the wireless segment gets stable, Jio will turn its focus to the wired broadband segment where it will offer FTTH services with speeds up to 100 Mbps under the name Jio Fiber. Jio is laying out optic fibre across the length and breadth of the country at war footing, subject to the right of way obtained from various municipal corporations within the city limits.

In Mumbai, the operator is currently offering free Jio fiber services in select locations and housing complexes with truly unlimited data usage, similar to the beta testing phase for employees and their family and friends and early adopters of LYF handsets before the commercial launch of wireless services. Currently, people residing in the locations where Jio is offering the free preview just need to pay a Rs.4500 refundable deposit for the consumer premise equipment, which they can get back if they choose to not continue with the service once Jio starts to charge for it.

I visited an acquaintance’s place where the Jio fiber was installed and decided to test the network performance. In the image above, the pic to the right shows the square modem cum wifi router with Jio branding while the smaller device held above it is the splitter for the optic fiber. The screenshot in the middle shows the speed test result using the net velocity app. I got a download speed of 93 Mbps and upload speed of 78 Mbps while the latency was just 7 ms. This is an ideal performance since the network is not yet loaded with only a handful of users utilising it, the actual performance will be visible after commercial launch.

Other developments:

Jio is also working on its IPTV solution where it will offer 500+ live TV channels on its Android-based set top box including full HD channels streaming over its fiber broadband network. Jio has also signed a deal with AirWire to offer connected car IoT device in India. Jio will soon launch its smart home solutions including remote unlocking of doors and controlling of lights and AC through the smart home app.