Jio Relaunches Prime: No Tariff Hike Till 2027, New Benefits

New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI) Within a week of Bharti Airtel removing lower-priced unlimited plans, rival Reliance Jio plans to relaunch its 10-year-old Prime membership plan, which will assure customers of no tariff or plan change for the next year, company sources said on Monday.

Jio is also set to enhance benefits under a Rs 299 plan, offering 1.5 GB of data per day, in an attempt to capitalise on the recent discontinuation of unlimited plans offering 1.5 GB of data per day by rival Bharti Airtel.

"Jio Prime Membership Programme was originally created as an act of gratitude to Jio's first 100 million customers. It is reintroducing the programme to provide assurance of price guarantee and a range of additional benefits, for Jio's family of over 500 million users," a source said.

A query sent to Jio in this regard elicited no reply.

The source said Jio Prime will be available to all existing Jio prepaid and postpaid customers for a joining fee of just Rs 300.


"Customers on other networks can enrol by porting to Jio or activating a new Jio connection," the source said.

The company is planning to add access to the Jio Hotstar subscription, 5000 GB storage on Google Cloud and free access to Google's AI engine, Pro Google Gemini, to the Rs 299 pack.

Bharti Airtel last week discontinued all prepaid plans – Rs 299, Rs 319, Rs 579, Rs 619, and Rs 649 – that offered 1.5 GB of data per day with unlimited calling, leaving customers to choose from pricier plans with higher daily data limits.

Experts say the latest move by Airtel signals an inevitable industry shift towards higher tariffs as telcos sharpen their focus on improving average revenue per user (ARPU).

The reshuffled prepaid offering deck leaves the entry-level Rs 199 with 2 GB data for 28 days and Rs 219 plan with 2 GB data for 30 days unchanged. However, subscribers to the now-discontinued Rs 299 plan with 1.5 GB of data per day will now have to opt for the Rs 349 pack to get higher data usage limit, resulting in a price rise of about 16 per cent.