Jio now charges 6 paise per minute for Voice Calls to other network

Back in 2017, TRAI slashes the Interconnect Usage Charge to 6 paise per minute earlier, which was 14 paise per minute. Those of you who don’t know, Interconnect Usage Charge (also called IUC) is a fee a telecom operator has to pay to their rival network when an outgoing call is placed to the rival network. For example, Right now, if you call from Jio to Airtel, Jio has to pay 6 paise per minute as the IUC fee to Airtel.

While revising the Interconnect usage charge in 2017, TRAI promised to end the IUC charge in January 2020. However, they are now considering to extend the same deadline.

Jio, on the other hand, said they are paying Rs. 13,500 crore to their rivals as the IUC fee. Now, Jio announces to maintain the loss made by TRAI by taking the IUC fee from its customers. That’s means from now on, we have to pay Reliance Jio 6 paise per minute for every voice call we made to other networks. Do note that from voice calls, I didn’t mean calls from WhatsApp, Facetime, and other such applications. Jio said this new charge starts taking into effect next time when a customer recharges their number.

Jio, however, said they are giving customers some data equivalent to the charge they take as the IUC fee. For example, if you pay Rs 10 as the IUC fee (that is equivalent to 124 minutes), then Jio gives you 1GB of free data. To pay the IUC fee, a customer has to recharge for the IUC Top Ups that starts from Rs 10 and goes till Rs 100.

Below I create a list of all IUC Top Ups along with the IUC Minutes and Free data Jio is providing right now.

Well, Jio became the first Telecom operator who is now charging its customers for voice calls. One thing you should have to note is, IUC Charge is applicable only for outgoing calls, not for incoming ones. Let’s see when Airtel and other networks going to follow the same regime.

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