Interconnect Usage Charge (IUC) has been a prevailing issue in India since Reliance released Jio that led other telecom operators to change their plans. Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had slashed the IUC charge to 6 paise per minute from 14 paise, back in 2017 and was supposed to be applied from January 2020.
Jio has justified the new charges, saying that it has paid nearly ₹13,500 crores as IUC charges to the rivals such as Vodafone Idea and Bharti AirtelNSE 5.23 % in the last three years. The company said it has decided to charge customers to recover the IUC losses.
Known as the country’s largest telecom operator, Jio also released a complete explanation in the form of an image on its Facebook account.
To explain in layman’s terms, people with Jio number calling someone using a Vodafone-Idea or an Airtel number will be charged 6 paise per minute till the time you keep ringing. The calls will be free to all other operators but you will have to pay 6 paise per minute till the time you ringing the other person. But say, you are calling someone with a Jio number, then you do not have to pay anything. Moreover, all the incoming calls, WhatsApp calls will remain unchanged. Postpaid users will also have to adhere to the new IUC plans; the charges will be added to their billing cycle.
New Jio Plans
There are four new IUC plans with extra data benefits. Read below:
- ₹10 plan will offer 124 minutes of IUC minutes to non-Jio numbers + 1GB data.
- ₹20 plan will offer 249 minutes of IUC minutes to non-Jio numbers + 2GB data.
- ₹50 plan will offer 656 minutes of IUC minutes to non-Jio numbers + 5GB data.
- ₹100 plan will offer 1,362 minutes of IUC minutes to non-Jio numbers + 10GB data.
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