Reliance Jio withdraws low-value prepaid packs to improve ARPU

Mumbai: Reliance Jio Infocomm has withdrawn its prepaid packs of Rs 19 and Rs 52, which means that tariff plans will now start from Rs 98 for its 350 million plus subscribers. The move is another effort by the telco to limit lower-value recharges that have been weighing on average revenue per user (ARPU), a key metric, said analysts. This follows Jio’s decision to charge for some voice calls, having pledged at its launch they would always be free.

The packs of Rs 19 and Rs 52 — valid for one and seven days, respectively— were available until the company started charging customers 6 paise per minute to recover the interconnect user charge (IUC), paid to the telco on whose network a call terminates.