Reliance Jio ends ‘Summer Surprise’ offer on Trai orders

Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd on Thursday said it was complying with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) order asking it asked it to withdraw its ''Summer Surprise'' offer.

Under the offer, all Jio Prime members making their first recharge payment of Rs303 or higher got three months complimentary services in addition to the benefits of their purchased plan.

''Today, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has advised Jio to withdraw the 3 months complimentary benefits of JIO SUMMER SURPRISE,'' the company said in a statement.

''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,'' the company said.

However, all customers who have subscribed to JIO Summer Surprise offer prior to its discontinuation will remain eligible for the offer, it added.

Other telecom companies have been at loggerheads with Relaince Jio over its promotional offers, which first started in September and later were extended until 31 March. India's Telecom Commission had asked Trai to implement its decision on promotional tariffs issued in June 2002 and September 2008 in ''letter and spirit''.

Trai's 2002 order restricts the validity period of promotional offers to 90 days while the 2008 order stated that all service providers need to state the eligibility criteria for such offers and the duration in which the offers are valid.

Free services offered by Reliance Jio that eroded the profitability of telecom operators during the quarter ended 31 December.

The Telecom Commission is also worried about declining licence fees, spectrum usage charges (SUC) and service tax collections from the industry, Mint reports.

Licence fee collection has declined to Rs3,166 crore in the December quarter from Rs3,584 crore in the preceding three months. SUC declined to Rs1,553 crore from Rs1,820 crore during the period.

The commission observed that any fall in industry revenue will impact industry's investment and repayment capacity, which may result in defaults on loans and spectrum purchase charges owed by operators to the government.

Since Reliance Jio's launch, the telecom industry has lost about 20 per cent of its revenue, India Ratings and Research said, revising its sectoral outlook for 2017-18 to ''negative''.

Reliance Jio has more than 100 million subscribers and around 72 million 'prime subscirbers', who are actually paying for its services.