Jio Prime Members to Enjoy More Data Benefits

Reliance Jio is set to end its ‘Happy New Year’ offer on 31^st March 2017 and begin charging for its services from 1^st April 2017. The competitive rates announced by Reliance Jio have led to a price war in the telecom market in India. To attract more customers, the Mukesh Ambani-led company has introduced the Jio Prime offer.

Jio Prime membership 

A Jio Prime subscriber will be able to enjoy additional data benefits than a non-Prime member. Any Jio user can enroll for Prime membership before 31^st March 2017 by paying a fee of INR 99. The membership will be valid from 1^st April 2017 to 31^st March 2018.

A Jio Prime member may then choose any of the available data plans. The prepaid plans range from INR 19 having one-day validity to INR 9999 having 360 days validity. Both prepaid and postpaid customers can enjoy the benefits of Jio Prime. However, postpaid users get an option of only 3 plans, which are priced at INR 303, INR 499, and INR 999.

To subscribe to Jio Prime membership, a customer can use apps like MyJio or JioMoney, or visit any Jio store or Jio website. The telecom operator is offering a cashback of INR 50 on the subscription through the JioMoney app.

Jio plans for Prime and non-Prime users 

A regular Jio customer will get 2.5 GB of 4G data for 28 days on a recharge of INR 303 while a Jio Prime user will get unlimited data with a daily usage cap of 1 GB at the same amount. With the INR 303 monthly plan, a Prime user could enjoy all the benefits of the Happy New Year Offer. Moreover, those who recharge before 31^st March 2017 will get an additional data benefit of 5 GB worth INR 201.

The daily pack of INR 19 will offer 200 MB data to Prime members as compared to 100 MB to non-Prime users. At INR 49, Prime users will get 600 MB data while non-Prime users will get 300 MB data for three days.

The next plan is priced at INR 96. In this, Prime members will get unlimited data with a daily usage cap of 1 GB while non-Prime users will get 600 MB data for a week. As the rates increase, the data gap between Prime and non-Prime users also increases. The INR 499 plan will come with a validity of 28 days and offer 56 GB with a 2 GB daily usage limit to Prime members while the latter will get 5 GB of total data.

The highest value plan costs INR 9999. Prime users will get unlimited data for 360 days with 750 GB data at 4G speed while non-Prime users will get 200 GB 4G data for 30 days at this rate.

All of the Jio plans include benefits like unlimited local and national voice calls, no national roaming, free SMS services, and free access to Jio apps.

Summary

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio Prime members can enjoy additional data benefits as compared to non-Prime users. The registration for Prime subscription ends on 31^st March 2017.

Reliance Jio Partners with Ciena and is Expected to Have 82 Percent of Users after Expiration of Free Offer

A survey by United States (US)-based brokerage, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch revealed that a majority of the existing Reliance Jio customers will continue to use the service even after the company starts charging from 1^st April 2017.

Findings of the survey

82 percent of the people who were surveyed said that they will continue with their Jio connection once the free offer ends. 96 percent of the ones who responded positively said that they will subscribe to the Jio Prime plan. It was found that the INR 303 plan was the most popular choice amongst these respondents.

The INR 303 Jio Prime plan offers all the benefits of the Happy New Year offer for 28 days. These include unlimited local and national calls, free 4G data with a daily usage cap of 1 GB, free SMS services, and free national roaming, among other facilities.

The survey was conducted online in the third week of March. About 1,000 random Jio users were questioned, with the focus being on garnering a response from mid-end and high-end smart phone users.

83 percent of the total people surveyed said that the 4G network of Jio is at par with other telecom operators, with 41 percent stating it to be better. This indicates that the level of customer satisfaction is increasing for the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom company.

In Bank of America-Merrill Lynch’s last survey, which was conducted in December 2016, 50 percent of users said that Jio was their primary SIM card. This number has now gone up to 66 percent. A majority of the participants even said that Jio offers higher and better data speeds, and reported a notable improvement in its voice quality.

With reference to the survey, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch stated that Jio’s popularity will make retaining high-end customers difficult for incumbent telecom operators. It added that their Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) could get strained.

Recently, Sanford C. Bernstein also conducted a survey. In that, Mukesh Ambani led Jio scored the ‘highest overall on customer loyalty’. In terms of customer service, data speeds, data coverage, convenience, and handset choice, Jio scored more than incumbent operators.

Reliance Jio’s partnership with Ciena

Reliance Jio entered into a partnership with the telecom networking solutions company, Ciena. The US-based company will help Jio in improving its data speeds and supporting the increasing customer base with multi-terabit packet-optical technology.

The new technology will enable Reliance Jio to operate at a speed as high as 200 GBPS. It will also enable Jio to accomplish its dream of pan-India 4G network coverage. The deal is estimated to be worth INR 100 crore.

Mukesh Ambani  led Reliance Jio President Jyotindra Thacker said that the partnership with Ciena will allow Jio to support a higher level of data consumption, offer enhanced services, and boost customer confidence in the brand.

Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Ciena, Steve Alexander said that Jio understands the needs of the present digital environment and will meet the increasing demands of high-speed data in India.

Summary

According to a survey by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, 82 percent of users will continue to use Jio’s services even after the company begins charging. Reliance Jio has also joined hands with Ciena to offer high-speed data and support the expanding customer base.

Mumbai Indians Gets New Players Onboard and Offers IPL Tickets Exclusively for Jio Users

Reliance Jio is emerging as one of the biggest telecom companies in India. The company is promoting its telecom services along with a host of apps created for Jio users. One of the main ones is its mobile wallet app, JioMoney.

Mumbai Indian IPL tickets on JioMoney

Reliance Jio owner Mukesh Ambani also owns Mumbai Indians, a team of the Indian Premier League (IPL). The JioMoney app is also an official partner of the Mumbai Indians team.

From 16^th March 2017, the tickets for home matches of Mumbai Indians at IPL 2017 will be exclusively available for JioMoney users. The offer will be open for the initial six days and would last until 21^st March 2017. Post that, tickets will be made available for other customers as well. These bookings are for the home matches of Mumbai Indians, which will be held at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.

The ticket price ranges from INR 800 for Sunil Gavaskar Stand to INR 8000 for Sachin Tendulkar Hospitality Stand. The prices for box tickets begin at INR 12,000 and go up to INR 30,000.

Home matches of Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians team has its home matches on 9^th April with Kolkata Knight Riders, 12^th April with Sunrisers Hyderabad, 16^th April with Gujarat Lions, 24^th April with Rising Pune Supergiants, 1^st May with Royal Challengers Bangalore, 6^th May with Delhi Daredevils, and 11^th May with Kings XI Punjab.

The tickets for the match on 16^th April won’t be available as Nita Ambani led Reliance Foundation has booked the entire stadium for underprivileged children under its Education For All (EFA) initiative on that day.

New players in the team

Mumbai Indians has won the IPL twice. For 2017, the team bought 7 new players in the IPL auction. It has arranged a backup player for all the positions. The team retained the 20 players of its squad and bought new players for INR 8.2 crores. Mumbai Indians had a budget of INR 11.55 crores.

As a middle order batsman, the team got Saurabh Tiwary. It also got leg-spinner, Karn Sharma. In addition to this, the team brought onboard a foreign fast bowler, Mitchell Johnson, who had been a part of Mumbai Indians earlier. Besides, they also got an all-rounder K. Gowtham for INR 2 crores.

Akash Ambani believes that Gowtham will be an asset for the team. Other players added to the Mumbai Indians team are Sri Lankan all-rounder Asela Gunaratne, Delhi bowler Kulwant Khejroliya, and West Indian wicketkeeper-batsman Nicholas Pooran.

Mumbai Indians team for IPL 2017

The entire team of Mumbai Indians is led by its skipper Rohit Sharma. The other players include Harbhajan Singh, Parthiv Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Nitish Rana, Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell McClenaghan, Shreyas Gopal, Kieron Pollard, Karn Sharma, Vinay Kumar, Hardik Pandya, Siddhesh Lad, J. Suchith, Deepak Punia, Krunal Pandya, Jos Buttler, Tim Southee, Mitchell Johnson, Lendl Simmons, Nicholas Pooran,Lasith Malinga, Asela Gunaratne, K. Gowtham, and Kulwant Khejroliya.

Summary

IPL 2017 ticket bookings for home matches of Mumbai Indians are open exclusively for JioMoney users for the initial six days.

Reliance Jio Collaborates with Paytm and Uber in Separate Deals

The telecom arm of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Reliance Jio Infocomm, has joined hands with India’s leading e-wallet brand, Paytm, and with the global taxi-hiring service, Uber, for two separate deals.

Reliance Jio’s deal with Paytm

With the partnership between Reliance Jio and Paytm, Jio users will now be able to recharge their connections using Paytm wallet.

The service is currently available only for Jio’s prepaid users. The Noida-based company, Paytm, made the partnership official with an announcement on Twitter. The Founder of Paytm, Vijay Shekhar, addressed Reliance Jio and tweeted, “Hello @reliancejio, welcome!”

Besides Paytm, there are certain third-party websites that enable Jio users to recharge their connections. These include websites like RechargeItNow and MobiKwik.

Jio’s partnership with Uber

Reliance Jio has signed a deal with leading cab aggregator, Uber. The partnership will benefit customers of both the companies.

As a part of this association, Uber will enable its users to make payments for their rides using the JioMoney app, across the country. Users will enjoy exclusive incentives from both Uber and JioMoney when they pay for their rides using JioMoney. Both the companies said that the alliance will encourage cashless transactions while traveling and provide more mobility to Jio users.

Tariff plans offered by Jio

Reliance Jio will start charging its customers from 1^st April 2017. The company has been offering free services since it launched in September 2016. In the first 170 days of its launch, the telecom operator received 100 million customers.

In a press conference held last month, Reliance Jio Chairman, Mukesh Ambani announced new Prime membership plans for users. The Prime subscription costs INR 99 and will be valid from 1^st April 2017 to 31^st March 2018. The registration for the same is open until the end of March 2017.

Under the Prime membership, Jio will be offering a number of affordable plans. Jio users will be able to extend their ‘Happy New Year’ offer at just INR 303 per month. With this, users could enjoy free unlimited data with a daily usage cap of 1 GB, free national and local voice calls, free national SMS services, free national roaming, and free access to Jio apps like JioXpressNews, JioMags, JioMusic, JioCinema, JioTV, JioChat, and JioCloud, among others.

Reliance Jio has a variety of data packs available at different rates. The packs start from INR 19 with a validity of 1 day and end at INR 9999 that is available with a validity of 360 days.

Apart from these plans, Mukesh Ambani promised that Jio will match the best-selling tariff plans of other telecom operators and provide 20 percent extra data over them. He also said that the company will announce several attractive offers for Jio Prime members.

Summary

Reliance Jio has partnered with Paytm to enable Jio users to recharge their connections using the latter’s e-wallet app. It has also partnered with Uber to enable JioMoney users to pay for their Uber rides.

Reliance Jio Signed an All-IP Converged Network Deal with Cisco

The telecom arm of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), Reliance Jio collaborated with IT major Cisco for an all-Internet Protocol (IP) converged network deal. With this deal, Reliance Jio aims to extend its existing capacity.

Earlier, Reliance Jio said that it is the only company across the globe to offer digital services on an end-to-end all-IP network at such a large scale. The telecom operator already has a multi-terabit capacity.

Reliance Jio’s partnership with Cisco

Currently, Cisco provides IP equipment like packet network, data centers, and security solutions to Reliance Jio. The new deal will enable Jio to revolutionize citizen services delivery in India from utilities, transportation, and financial inclusion to healthcare, entertainment, education, and agriculture.

Cisco’s Cloud Scale Networking technologies and Open Network Architecture formed the base of Jio’s all-IP digital platform. The technologies have IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) feature, including areas of Security, Data Center, Wi-Fi, and Contact Center solutions.

Reliance Jio President, Mathew Oommen said that Jio, with its inclusive and affordable broadband services, has fundamentally impacted the way people in India utilize technology in their daily lives.

He expressed that the partnership with Cisco has played a great role in the technological development. The high scale All-IP Digital Services Network Platform built by Cisco has helped Jio in moving towards fulfilling India’s dream to be a prime transformational agent in Leadership and Digital Adoption.

Jio’s Network Platform has a capacity to meet immeasurable data growth. The all-IP network supports the constantly increasing data volumes. This assists Jio to achieve its aim of molding the future of India by offering end-to-end digital solutions and broadband for all.

Senior Vice President at Cisco, Yvette Kanouff said that Reliance Jio and Cisco have the same vision, which is enhancing key network functions and fastening digitization by establishing an open and programmable infrastructure.

Reliance Jio’s development

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio has an established fiber network of over 1.85 lakh miles. It has also built the biggest cloud data center in India. After the roll out of Jio’s services in September 2016, India’s monthly data consumption increased up to 40 times, making it the highest in the world. Jio’s infrastructure and Content Delivery Network (CDN) is present not only in India but also in Frankfurt, Singapore, France, Amsterdam, London, Los Angeles, and New York. Jio thus shares a connection with global operators that enables it to offer a low-latency and high-quality experience to Indian customers.

The company provides services like high-speed data, Voice over Long-Term Evolution (VoLTE), mobile video, cloud, digital commerce, e-payment, and media.

Earlier, Cisco predicted the mobile data traffic to grow seven times from 2016 to 2021. It said that technology is the prime factor to accelerate India’s economic growth. Currently, Reliance Jio alone has a monthly data consumption of 1 exabyte, making it the most dominant network in the industry. Besides, Jio also achieved the milestone of being the first company in the world to receive 100 million customers in just 170 days of its launch.

Summary

Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of Reliance Industries Limited, awarded Cisco an all-IP converged network deal in order to further expand its existing capacity.