Buoyed by Reliance Jio growing faster than Facebook and WhatsApp in first three months of launch to reach 52 million customer base, India's richest man Mukesh Ambani yesterday announced extension of free domestic voice calls and data till March 31. With over 52 million customers taking Jio's free voice and data since its launch on September 4, he announced 'Jio Happy New Year Offer' of free data, voice, video and applications till March 31 for new users joining from December 4 as well as the existing ones.
However, the plan will come with a Fair Usage Policy (FUP) which will cap data for Reliance Jio customers at around 1 GB per day. A service to home delivery of Reliance Jio SIM cards was also announced. Ambani, 59, also announced a rollout of Jio Money Merchant Solutions, a mobile payment application, for enabling digital payment for small merchants at their various points of transactions. Jio has become the fastest growing technology company, not only in India, but in the history of the world! In the first three months since its birth, Jio has grown faster than Facebook, WhatsApp or Skype," he said. Jio has crossed 50 million customers in first 83 days (user base now is over 52 million). "Starting 4th of December, 2016, every new Jio user will get Jio's data, voice, video and the full bouquet of Jio applications and content, absolutely free till March 31, 2017," he said, adding that the benefit will also be extended to the existing users.
Ambani backs demonetisation
Mukesh Ambani yesterday threw his weight behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation move, saying in a single stroke all unproductive money has been brought into productive use. "By doing this, our Prime Minister has given the strongest possible push to the growth of a digitally-enabled, optimal-cash economy in India," he said. Stating that the move will help change the mindset of the people of India, he said, digitally-enabling transactions will help "create a fair, just, transparent and strong India and Indian economy."