In a sign that new users roped in by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio are not with the network just for freebies, a new survey has found that over 85 per cent of the current Reliance Jio customers wish to retain their connections even after its free 4G service offer expires on March 31, 2017.
"An overwhelming majority - over 85 per cent - of Jio users will continue as paid consumers after the expiry of free offer. A further 8 per cent could continue if voice issue is fixed - implying just over 6 per cent exhibiting reluctance to continue with Jio," the survey conducted by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch released today, said.
BofA-ML had commissioned SurveyMonkey to conduct an online survey of over 1,000 respondents across the country with over 500 Jio users.
Reliance Jio is offering free 4G mobile broadband service till March 31, 2017 and unlimited voice calls and free roaming for lifetime.
The survey found that over 75 per cent of respondents have directly or indirectly, through a friend, used Jio.
"Jio's faster data speed appears to be a bigger attraction than tariffs. The biggest reason for users to test Jio during the free offer period was not that it was free (28 per cent) but that its data speeds were higher (32 per cent).
“Interestingly, a significant number cited Jio's free content as a reason to use it," the report said.
Jio users (57 per cent) have shown interest to to pay Rs. 400-500 for a bundled offer of 4GB data and free voice calling and another 12 per cent users said that they won't mind paying higher and would choose larger data packs.
"Almost 19 per cent users would choose Jio's lower pack and retain flexibility to add data packs as needed. Just 12 per cent Jio users plan to switch back at average revenue per user of Rs. 400," the report added.
According to the survey, over 60 per cent of the respondents said they would upgrade their current phones to use Jio.
The report added that over 72 per cent are extremely or very happy with voice services provided by their current operators and just over 4 per cent were unhappy.
Around 12 per cent users face higher than expected call drops and around 38 per cent report no call drop issue, as per the survey.
