Last day to subscribe to Reliance Jio Prime: You may not get a similar offer again

The last date for subscription to Reliance Jio's Prime membership ends on 31st March after which users won't be able to avail the low cost data rates the company is offering under the scheme.  Reliance Jio, the $21-billion start-up backed by Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd. Jio has been offering everything - voice, data and a bouquet of other services - free since its launch in September 2016.

Under the Prime Membership, Reliance Jio will offer 28GB of data with unlimited voice calls for just Rs 303. To woo more customers into buying the Prime membership, Jio is offering users extra data of up to 120GB, over and above the prescribed data-limit. The offer is available on all data plans from Rs 149 and above.

These are pretty much the lowest data rates in the market, and unless incumbent telcos come up with more surprise offers, these low rates offered by Reliance Jio are unlikely to be matched. After Reliance Jio's announcements, Bharti Airtel and other telcos have also unleashed many offers to stop customers from shifting to Jio.

To take on Reliance Jio, Airtel had announced its new offer early this month. Under the new tariff, Airtel offers 28GB of data at a price of Rs 345 for its pre-paid customers.

Bharti Airtel made roaming free and gave out more data to its customers at lower rates, but still seemed to have fallen short of matching Jio which raced to 100 million subscriber base in just 170 days. The telecom industry has also seen the big decision of Vodafone-Idea merger during this period.

The price war triggered by Reliance Jio's arrival has benefited customers and it remains to be seen if there are more freebies in store.