Reliance Jio offers cheap data as it eyes 100 mn users

In what it claims will usher in an era of free voice calls, Mukesh Ambani led-Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Thursday announced the launch of telecom service Reliance Jio starting 5 September.

"Jio will never charge for voice calls across India and messages," announced Ambani while addressing RIL's annual general meeting in Mumbai.

Also, the subscribers of the telecom service will not have to pay roaming charges across India.

The company will also provide Internet data at as low as Rs.50 per gigabyte. "The more one uses data, the cheaper it will be," added Ambani.

Reliance Jio's entry will lead to a tariff war in the Indian telecom space. Competitor Bharti Airtel Ltd already slashed rates on 29 August by around 80% for prepaid users.

The tariff of the company will start with as low as Rs.19 per day for 'light data users' and will go up to Rs.4,999 for 'heavy data users'.

Apart from telecom services, the company also announced the launch of apps for movies, music and television, among others. These will be offered free to customers till 31 December 2018.

The company will also offer 25% discount to students.

In what may augur well for the National Democratic Alliance government's Start Up India campaign, RIL on Thursday said that the company has set aside Rs.5,000 crore of venture capital to help young entrepreneurs build their businesses.

"Jio is a creation by the young, for the young," said Ambani while addressing shareholders, and pointed out that the average age of Jio employees is 30 years.

Around 12 noon, while shares of RIL was up 0.66% to Rs.1,064, Bharti Airtel Ltd and Idea Cellular Ltd were down 7.49%.

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