Disruptive pan-Indian operator Reliance Jio Infocomm has claimed a new world record after signing up 16 million subscribers in less than a month of operations.
The operator launched commercial services on September 5, and had passed 16 million subscribers by the end of the month. The company said it had achieved this level of growth faster than any operator, as well as OTT startups including WhatsApp, Facebook and Skype.
Reliance Jio is offering a free welcome pack until September 1 offering 4GB of data per day as well as unlimited voice and SMS services. After this date the operator plans to charge only for data, with free voice and SMS, in a move expected to heighten competition in the already crowded market.
The operator separately announced plans to offer the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, and will provide a free 12 months of Jio Digital Services with each purchase.
The digital services pack includes unlimited local, STD and national voice services, unlimited text, 20GB of 4G data, 40GB of WiFi data and unlimited 4G data at night, as well as over 300 channels of live TV.
During the recent $9.8 billion spectrum auction, Reliance Jio acquired 269.2MHz of additional spectrum in the 800-MHz, 1800-MHz and 2300-MHz bands to support its growth ambitions.