Reliance Jio Prime subscription tipped to be extended; all you need to know

Last month, Reliance Jio, in a bid to retain subscribers announced a special Prime subscription package, which entitled existing and new subscribers all the benefits of Happy New Year Offer for an additional year – from March 31, 2017 to March 31, 2018.

Now, the company is reportedly planning to extend Reliance Jio Prime membership scheme till April 30, 2017.

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Market analysts and also rival telecom service players had predicted that once the March 31 deadline ends, most users will dump the Reliance Jio SIMs. Now, a new report has emerged that it might just turn true.

Reliance Jio, which scored more than 100 million subscribers in record time (less than six months after the September 5, 2016 launch), has so far amassed just 20-22 million registrations for the Prime program and this apparently has forced company's think tanks to formulate a contingency plan to retain the subscribers.

"It [Reliance Jio Prime offer] may get another month's extension, may be till April 30," a company insider told Tele Analysis. "But, nothing has been finalised yet," the source added.

So far, Reliance Jio has not made any official comment on the speculations.

For those unaware, the Happy New Year Offer includes unlimited 4G data (1GB high speed data per day), calls and access to all Jio apps worth Rs 10,000. By signing up for Rs. 99 (one-time payment) Reliance Jio Prime program, users will get all the aforementioned benefits for a paltry fee of Rs. 303 per month, which translates to Rs 10 per 1 GB data.

Also read: Reliance Jio Prime goes live in India; here are complete details of tariff plans

In the meantime, established players Airtel and BSNL have waged a price war on Reliance Jio by offering lucrative data packages to its subscribers.

Earlier in the month, Britain-based Vodafone announced the acquisition of Aditya Birla-owned Idea Cellular in India. With the merger, Vodafone is said to overtake Airtel has as India's biggest network.