Telecom operator Reliance Jio has said that as per directions of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Bill and Keep regime is being implemented in the country from 1 January 2021, thereby ending interconnect usage charges (IUC) for all domestic voice calls. The company said that "Honouring its commitment to revert off-net domestic voice-call charges to zero, as soon as IUC charges are abolished, Jio will once again make all off-net domestic voice calls free, starting 1 January 2021. On-net domestic voice calls have always been free on the Jio network".
For context, in September 2019, when TRAI extended the timeline for implementation of the Bill & Keep regime beyond 1 January 2020, Jio was left with no option but to start charging its customers for offnet voice calls, at a rate exactly equivalent to the applicable IUC charge. While doing so, Jio had assured its users that this charge would continue only till the time TRAI abolished IUC charges. Reliance Jio, which added overall 2.22 million new mobile customers, taking its total subscriber base to 406.3 million during October.