Jio to charge for calls to network of rivals

Voice calls made by the 34-crore subscribers of Reliance Jio to rival networks will not be free anymore.

The Mukesh D. Ambani-company on Wednesday said it would charge 6 paise per minute for such calls. However, Jio will compensate its subscribers by giving them free data of equal value.

Jio said it was taking this step because of “regulatory uncertainty” over call termination charges to the network of its rivals that were supposed to end in January. Telecom regulator Trai has floated a consultation paper to review whether the timeline needed to be extended.

Call termination charges, or interconnect usage charge (IUC), is a fee paid by one operator to another when its customers make outgoing calls to the other operator’s customers.