Reliance Jio Prime subscription deadline is today and it’s time you decide whether a Jio SIM can be your go-to network for the next year or not. Well, we are taking a one year stretch because of Jio Prime, as of now, only makes sense for one year because the company might change the charges once crossing the one year mark. When we compare it to other networks, Reliance Jio looks impressive but should you subscribe to Jio Prime? We hope this will help you to decide.
What is Reliance Jio Prime subscription?
Before the question of Jio Prime membership arises, let’s first understand what exactly we get under Jio Prime membership. So if you are currently using a Jio SIM, you must be aware of the Happy New Year offer which Mukesh Ambani announced starting 1st January 2017. For Reliance Jio Prime membership, users will get the same benefits as the Happy New Year offer for another one year. To subscribe, you have to first pay Rs 99 as subscription fee until tomorrow i.e. 31st March and thereafter pay Rs 303 per month for availing all the benefits. To detail out the benefits, you get free unlimited calls and SMS across all the networks along with 1GB 4G LTE data per day. Now the subscription fee of Rs 99 is only valid for one year and might change starting next year. Further, Jio Prime is not only about the Happy New Year offer. Jio Prime users get a lot of advantages over the non-prime users regarding other plans as well. To name it in a one-liner, Prime users will be entitled to almost double the amount of data when compared to non-prime users.
For Rs 149, Prime users will get 2GB of data while non-prime users will get 1GB. For Rs 499, Prime users will get 56GB of data while non-prime users will get only 5GB of data with a daily cap of 2GB data on the former.
Other plans include Rs 999 which will offer 60GB (12.5 GB for non-prime) of 4G data with no daily cap and a validity of 60 days. For Rs 1999 you get 125GB (30GB for non-prime) with a validity of 90 days (30 days for non-prime). For Rs 4999 you get 350 GB (100GB for non-prime) of 4G data with a validity of 180 days (30 days for non-prime). Lastly, for Rs 9999 you get 750GB of 4G data with a validity of 360 days or roughly 1 year. For non-prime members, this offer gives 200GB of 4G data with a validity of 30 days only.
How does Reliance Jio Prime fare against offers from Airtel, Vodafone and Idea?
Soon after Reliance Jio Prime was announced, other telecom operators like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea started introducing their counter plans. Airtel’s Rs 345 pack gives you Free Unlimited Local + STD calls and 28 GB of 3G/4G data for 28 days with a daily limit of 500 MB for the day and 500 MB for the night. However, you need to subscribe to this plan by 31st March to get this offer for the whole year. Vodafone’s offer, which is probably not valid right now, offered free unlimited calls and SMS + 28GB of 3G/4G data with a daily cap of 1GB with the validity of 28 days for Rs 346. First-time users would get double the data i.e. 56GB. Lastly, Idea Cellular also came up with its own Rs 348 pack which offered free unlimited calls and SMS with 14G of 4G data with a daily cap of 500MB (valid for 28 days). Here is a table which explains everything mentioned above.
Now if you analyse closely, Reliance Jio actually comes out to be the most feasible choice for them all but you have to spend that extra Rs 99 to subscribe.
How to get Reliance Jio Prime subscription for free?
Although you still need to pay Rs 303 per month, you can actually waive off the subscription fee of Rs 99 with Jio Money offer. The telecom operator recently introduced a special offer where one can get Rs 50 cashback on every recharge (for a Jio number) done from the Jio Money Wallet app. As per the offer, if you subscribe to Jio Prime membership through Jio Money wallet app, you get Rs 50 cashback. Thereafter, if you recharge your Jio number for Rs 303 or above to continue to enjoy the Happy New Year offer, you again get Rs 50 cashback which in total sums up to Rs 100. In other words, you will actually pay only Rs 302 in total for subscribing as well as recharging your first monthly plan for your Jio SIM. However, note that the cashback will be available as Jio Vouchers in Jio Money app. Other than Jio Money wallet, you can also get the recharge done from Paytm and Mobikwik but you will not be able to get Rs 100 (in total) cash back in that case.
Reliance Jio is also offering buy one get one offer for prime users. To explain if you recharge for Rs 149 you get additional 1GB data every month. Further, if you recharge for Rs 303 and Rs 499, you get 5GB and 10GB data every month respectively.
What will happen if you don’t subscribe for Reliance Jio Prime subscription?
If you don’t subscribe for Reliance Jio Prime subscription, you can still recharge with other non-prime plans available. Further, if you don’t use your Jio prepaid SIM for next 3 months, your SIM will be automatically deactivated as per TRAI guidelines. However, if you own postpaid Jio SIM, you need to call to Reliance Jio customer care.
Apart from this you can also suspend and resume your Reliance Jio SIM through company’s official website. Log in to the official website of Reliance Jio network by visiting here. After logging in, locate the new option called ‘Suspend and Resume’ on the official website. Clicking on the ‘Suspend and Resume’ option will give you two options – SIM Damaged and SIM/Device Lost. Choose your particular cause of suspending the SIM. Post clicking one of the above-mentioned two options, the SIM gets suspended immediately. Note that, the Resume option will only be enabled once you have suspended your SIM card.
So should you take the Jio Prime membership?
It depends on your experience. If during your usage in past months, Reliance Jio has managed to take your primary SIM slot on your smartphone then there is no better option currently. However, if you are not satisfied with the internet speed and are also one of the victims of constant call drops, it’s better to stay with your network or choose the one with better connectivity and stability.