Reliance Jio and India Telecom - The curious case of call drops

Reliance Jio has taken the world by storm when it announced its pricing and speeds. In a country like India where low speed internet capped with FUP’s rule the league, Jio is truly a marvel. Since high speed internet is what the young India wants, Jio wanted to tap this segment and make some huge amount of profit out of it.

Mukesh Ambani was right is expecting the huge demand India has for faster Internet. But he slightly over estimated the capability of the competitors as well. We have our own set of politics that we use to gain an edge over others. The competitors did the same.

What’s the problem with Jio ?

Jio has concentrated on making a highly powerful infrastructure with a few flaws here and there. This infrastructure was their biggest asset and it helped pave way for the future of Jio. However the beta testers had always reported one main flaw, Call Drops!

I always like to try new things in tech world. Being a technophile I couldn’t resist to try it. But to my surprise the offer was initially only for low end phones. This has slightly taken me aback but after getting one from my cousin and testing on his phone, I was amazed. I’ve experienced the call drops as well. Though it was slightly disappointing, we thought it was common due to the testing stage.

However the call drops seemed to persist even after the commercial launch. This was a slowdown for jio’s growth since the young gen looks at the reviews before buying 😉

The other networks who didn’t expect this intended to disrupt Jio’s efforts using this flaw. Lately we are seeing in the news that Airtel and Vodafone are cutting the calls that are going to Jio sim phones. They are trying to use this to lure customers to their companies by saying Jio’s technology has a flaw.

The acquisition was made my Jio that Airtel is using cheap shady tricks to prevent customers to move to Jio and also make their network look weak for Jio users. Vodafone has also joined this trend and started to cut the calls that their customers make to Jio sim users as per Jio.

It’s not uncommon for companies in India to use such shady practices. However Jio has become much more powerful when Rcom acquired Aircel and when Jio in turn virtually acquired Rcom.

What this means is that Reliance Jio will become much more powerful and sweep most of the customers from other networks. While there are many caveats in getting a Jio sim as you need a VoLTE enabled 4g phone as well as have to subscribe to their apps, it’s still worth a shot.

I have been through their plans and I must say it was very cleverly designed to lure customer to their 499 plan. But since free calls is wat most people want, the 149 plan will be most famous among the masses. Apart from that the night data time of 2Am to 5Am is ridiculous. I believe Jio will introduce a new plan in between the 149 and 499 or atleast change their night data times for attracting more users like me.

Here’s a look at their plans on their site.

Should you buy a Jio Sim ?

This is a puzzling question to many. While their service are free to everyone till December 31, the next one is important. The main question at hand is will these users stick with Jio after January 1, 2017?

I have not taken a Jio sim after viewing their plans because it was clearly of no use to me to take a 499 plan. That’s a bit unnecessary as I have a fibernet at home. The 149 plan however is nothing but a cheap plan that serves no purpose but free calls.

I don’t talking over the phone all day long so it doesn’t matter much for people like me. The 499 plan is kind of unnecessary unless we use it from 2AM to 5AM.

One more thing to consider is that Anonymous India has recently announced on Tumblr that Reliance is sharing user information to US and Singapore. This is quite disappointing as most younger generation are using Jio. If reliance continues this, probably completely neglecting Jio would be a safe move.

I am strictly against privacy exploitation. So, I would seriously consider staying away from Jio.

To sum it up, If you are looking for just voice calls and stuff, you can get Jio. If you are concerned about privacy and also data plays a major role in your life, better wait till things sort out.

Apart from that we can see other operators reducing their pricing and offering better packages as well. So don’t rush to get a Jio sim. Just wait and see 😉