Wednesday (October 9): Indian telecom giant Reliance Jio Infocomm has decided today to charge 6 paise per minute for calls made to other network operators.
Jio’s move is in line with the Interconnect Usage Charge or IUC fixed by the telecom regulator TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India).
“Calls made to other mobile operators will be charged at the prevailing IUC rate of 6 paise per minute through IUC top-up vouchers till such time that TRAI moves to zero termination charge regime,” Reliance Jio said.
Interconnect Usage Charge (IUC) is a cost paid by one mobile telecom operator to another, when its customers make outgoing mobile calls to the other operator’s customers.
These calls between two different networks are known as mobile off-net calls.
Relying on the repeated stance of TRAI and the amendment already made to the regulations reducing the IUC to Zero, Jio continued to pay IUC from its own resources to Airtel and Vodafone-Idea etc. while offering free voice to its customers.
So far, in the last three years Jio has paid nearly Rs.13,500 crore as NET IUC charges to the other operators, Jio said.
Meanwhile, Jio will not be charging anything for Jio to Jio calls, all incoming calls, Jio to landline calls and calls made using WhatsApp or FaceTime and similar platforms.
Jio has also assured its customers that the 6 paise per minute charge on outgoing off-net mobile calls shall continue only till the time TRAI abolishes IUC, in line with its present regulation.
