Reliance Jio on Friday announced free 300 minutes of outgoing calls per month to Jio Phone users who have not been able to recharge due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis in India. The telco said that it is working with Reliance Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Reliance Industries, to offer free calling minutes to the Jio Phone users. In addition to free minutes, Jio has brought a buy-one-get-one recharge plan offer for Jio Phone users that will offer a free recharge of the same value with Jio Phone recharge packs.
The free 300 minutes of outgoing calls per month for Jio Phone users will be available for the entire period of the pandemic, Jio said in a statement.
It is important to point out that the free minutes will come with a quota of 10 minutes per day. This means that users will not be able to make calls for more than 10 minutes a day using the free minutes. The benefit is also limited to Jio Phone users who have not been able to recharge. The operator has, however, not provided any clarity on the period it would consider for not recharging the Jio Phone account to offer the free voice calling benefit.
Nonetheless, all Jio Phone users recharging with a specific plan are entitled to receive an additional recharge plan of the same value for free. For instance, if a user is recharging with the Rs. 75 plan, they will get an additional Rs. 75 plan in the queue for free. The additional plan will also come with fresh validity. This will essentially double the validity and other benefits of a recharge plan. However, the additional free recharge offer is not applicable on annual or Jio Phone device-bundled plans, Jio has said.
Earlier this year, Jio introduced specific data plans for Jio Phone users that start from Rs. 22. The telecom operator also brought a Jio Phone 2021 offer that includes the Jio Phone handset along with unlimited voice calls and high-speed data for 12 months at Rs. 1,499. The same benefits were also provided for 24 months at Rs. 1,999.
Jio claimed to have over 100 million Jio Phone users in India. The operator is aiming to expand that number and attract 300 million feature phone users.