Reliance Jio restricting voice calls to 300 minutes per day for some; here’s why

Reliance Jio is cracking down on customers who are ‘misusing’ the free voice calls service. Here’s what you need to know about Jio’s 300 minutes per day cap clause.

A railway worker sits on the roof of a platform and talks on the phone while carrying out maintenance work, at Mumbai Central. (Pratham Gokhale/HT photo)

One of the major drivers for Reliance Jio's meteoric growth in the country has been its free and unlimited voice calling service. The company allows users to make free voice calls, even STD, to any other network for free. Reliance Jio, however, has updated its terms and conditions, putting a cap of 300 minutes on voice calls per day.

Here's the catch: The cap is not applicable to all users, but only those found "misusing" the free voice service. The company aims to curb the misuse of free voice calling service by pesky telemarketing calls or commercial use. Jio has also clarified that such a cap existed for a very long time and it's not new.

"This Plan is intended only for personal use of included services. RJIL reserves the right to discontinue the free Voice benefits offered as part of this Plan in case of misuse/ fraudulent use/ unauthorised telemarketing and commercial use," says one of the terms and conditions on Jio website.

"Commercial usage for this plan is defined as outgoing voice usage of 300 minutes per day or 1200 minutes for 7 days or 3,000 minutes per month (28 days), whichever is earlier. Calling to 100 unique MSIDNs in a rolling 7 day period will also constitute commercial usage," it adds.

Addressing the Reliance annual general meeting (AGM) in July this year, chairman Mukesh Ambani had disclosed that Jio users had made more than 250 crore (2.5 billion) minutes of voice and video calls per day.

It is worth noting that other telecom operators such as Airtel also have a similar cap on voice calls, under the unlimited offers.

"In order to protect the interest of genuine consumers and to prevent misuse of the Offer for commercial gain, the present offer shall be subject to the following limitations:... Customer using 1000 mins (Local/STD on Mobile/Landline) in a week (rolling 7 days) will be charged @ 10ps/min(Airtel to Airtel Network Calls) and 30ps/min (other Network Calls) post the consumption for rest of the 7 day period (e.g.: if customer crosses consumption limit on the 2nd day he/she will be charged for rest 5 days)," Airtel says on its website.

Reports about Jio's 300 minutes per day limit come shortly after the company updated terms and conditions for JioPhone customers last week. The company had made it compulsory for customers to make a minimum recharge of ₹1,500 per year to continue using the JioPhone.

"In order to prevent misuse or hoarding of the JioPhone and to encourage usage of its world-class 4G services, Jio has stipulated a minimum recharge of ₹1500 a year, using any combination of plans, in order to be eligible for the refund," a company executive told Hindustan Times.