Reliance Jio withdrawing 'Summer Surprise' offer; subscribers who recharged already won't be hit

Advised by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Reliance Jio said it will withdraw the 3-months complimentary benefits of Jio 'Summer Surprise'.

TRAI's move comes amid an increasing pressure on the regulator from incumbent operators and the telecom department over RJio's two promotions earlier, i.e. Welcome Offer and Happy New Year Offer that ran from September 5 to March 31, leading to an unprecedented tariff-war that robbed the government of almost Rs 800 crore in revenue.

The government collects licence fees and spectrum usage charges from operators, which are calculated on the basis of their revenue. Jio's promotional offers forced incumbent operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular to bring down their service rates, which led to a drop of their revenue eventually.

On March 31, Jio announced its Jio 'Summer Surprise' offer, under which all Jio Prime members making their first recharge payment of Rs 303 (or higher) plans got 3-months complimentary services in addition to the benefits of their purchased plan. The subscribers will get free 33GB 4G internet up till June 2017 with one single recharge. In other words, the ‘Summer Surprise’ offer basically extends the benefits of Jio’s ‘Happy New Year’ offer.

On April 1, RJio also extended the deadline for Jio Prime membership to April 15 from March 31 so that the subscribers who have not signed up yet, can also avail the offer in the next two weeks. Reliance Jio also announced that 72 million customers have already signed up for Jio Prime.

But yesterday, when TRAI advised Jio to withdraw the complimentary benefits of Jio 'Summer Surprise' and RJio issued a statement saying,

Jio accepts this decision. Jio is in the process of fully complying with the regulator’s advice, and will be withdrawing the 3 months complimentary benefits of Jio 'Summer Surprise' as soon as operationally feasible, over the next few days.

But the existing subscribers who paid for the recharge already prior the announcement of yesterday, will get the offer anyway, the operator promised. In the statement, it said clearly,

All customers who have subscribed to Jio 'Summer Surprise' offer prior to its discontinuation will remain eligible for the offer. 

While this will be a big relief for the subscribers who have recharged already, but it will be interesting to watch how Reliance Jio will be wooing the rest of its existing subscriber base which it claimed to be over 100 million as of now.