As announced by the telecom operator this week, Reliance Jio mobile phone customers need to buy IUC top-up vouchers to make outgoing voice calls to any non-Jio mobile number like that of Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
Unlike before, Jio has now started charging users for making voice calls to any non-Jio mobile number. Both prepaid and postpaid customers of Jio will have to pay 6 paise per minute for making outgoing calls to any non-Jio mobile number.
Jio's new recharge plan
All prepaid customers of Jio will not be able to make calls to numbers of other mobile operators till the time they buy an ICU top-up voucher. Although Jio has not changed any existing recharge plan, you will need to buy these vouchers.
Jio's recharge voucher for making voice calls begin from ₹10 and go up to ₹100. You can buy any one of them depending on your requirement. Also keep in mind that you get free 1 GB data with each ₹10 voucher.
The ₹10 voucher gives you 124 minutes of non-Jio talktime while the ₹100 voucher gets you 1,362 minutes of talktime. The ₹100 voucher also gives you 10 GB free data.
Postpaid consumers will also get free 1 GB data for every ₹10 they spend on IUC charges.
These top-ups, which do not come with any expiry date, will remain valid till the time you consume the talktime.
Will all Jio customers have to pay
Jio customers who recharged on or before October 9 will be exempt from voice call charges till the time their recharge plan expires.
Besides, all Jio to Jio calls and Jio to any landline calls will remain free. If you want to call someone from other network without having to pay any IUC charges, you can use WhatsApp and other calling apps which use internet.
Jio has also promised that the charges will remain in force only till the time TRAI makes IUC zero.
What is IUC
When you make an outgoing call, your operator has to pay a fee to the other operator. Known as Interconnect Usage Charge (IUC), it is fixed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). At present, IUC is fixed at 6 paise a minute.
So far, Jio was bearing this cost on its own but now it has decided to pass on the cost to its customers.
