In an announcement made by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today, the regulatory body directed Reliance Jio to end its welcome offer by 3 December.
According to the ṬRAI norms, the inaugural offers can only last till 90 days. Reliance Jio's services were publically available from 5 September. So the 90-day limit is ending on 3 December.
However, this means that new customers have time only until 3 December to grab a reliance SIM to enjoy the free data offer. The existing customers will still be able to enjoy the free data and other benefits provided by Jio till 31 December.
The customers buying a Jio SIM after 3 December will have to subscribe to the plans announced by Reliance at its September event.
At the time of announcement other telecom operators had cited Jio's practices as unfair because the trial period was started with LYF phones earlier this year. Even though Jio partnered with many smartphone makers including Samsung, LG, and Asus to give out free SIMs the official launch didn't take place till Reliance industry's Annual General Meeting in September.
After the launch, there was a lot of tussle between Jio and other telecom operators where the former accused others of not providing enough interconnection points.
Later, the companies agreed to provide additional connection points to Jio. However, recently Jio requested again for more interconnection points.
Reliance group announced its quarterly results today. The company's net profit was down by 23% for the second quarter of the financial year.