Jio extends free service with Summer Surprise offer: What is it and how it works

Last night On March 31, Jio's Happy New Year Offer came to an end. But that is not the only thing that happened Jio. Just hours before the midnight, the time when the Happy New Year ended, Jio made a number of announcements. Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani in a letter announced Jio's Summer Surprise offer. He also said that Jio would be no longer free, and although that is technically correct the reality is that Jio is free for another 3 months. Then there was the extension for the Jio Prime deadline.

But we get ourselves, let's take a look at everything Jio announced last night and let's take a closer look at the Summer Surprise offer, which is somewhat confusing at the moment.

Happy New Year offer ends: Well, this one is totally definite. It was supposed to last from January 1 to March 31. So last night, the Happy New Year offer came to an end.

But that is not end of free service: Now, if you woke up today that is April 1, thinking that your Jio SIM for which you have not subscribed to any plan and for which you have also not taken Jio Prime membership will not be working, you are wrong. Go check it. It is still working. You can still leech all the movies you wanted to do using it. You can still browse the web. The reason is that Jio is giving a grace period of 15 days for Jio users who are yet to subscribe to its plans.

Also Read: End of free Jio, new Prime deadline, Summer Surprise offer: Read full text of Mukesh Ambani's letter

Here is what Ambani wrote in his letter to Jio users last night: "Jio’s free service period is COMING TO AN END. Users who do not recharge by the extended date of 15th April will experience degradation and/or discontinuation of services."

The key words here are "coming to an end". It is not yet ended. Users still have time until April 15 to decide.

Jio Prime deadline is now April 15: Earlier Jio users had to subscribe to the Prime membership, which costs Rs 99 per year, by March 31. But Jio says that there was too much rush -- it says 72 million users have already taken Prime membership -- so it is extending the deadline by 15 days to April 15.

What is Summer Surprise offer?

Now, this is where things get interesting. Summer Surprise offer is Jio's "shagun offer" on a user's first recharge. If the user is a Jio Prime member and if he or she subscribes to a Jio plan that is worth Rs 303 or more, the Summer Surprise offer will kick in. This offer is available to all those who have already taken Jio Prime membership and have done their first recharge of Rs 303 or more. Summer Surprise offer will cover the duration from April 1 to June 30, which is three months. And it will give users free service, the same service and benefits they were getting for Happy New Year offer for another 3 months. The offer will be also available to all the users who take Jio Prime membership now before April 15 and then do the first recharge of Rs 303 or more.

Is Summer Surprise offer free or not?

It is in a way. And it is also not. To get the Summer Surprise offer you do need to spend some money. Essentially you have to spend Rs 303 + Rs 99 (for Prime). This means You have to spend Rs 404 for it.

But if you look at it from another perspective, it is essentially free because the first recharge that you do will kick in only from July 1. So basically, with the Rs 303 recharge you will get 28GB 4G data along with free calls and other services for four months, which the first 3 month being part of the Summer Surprise offer. So, for the first three months it's free. Right?

Actually no. The Summer surprise does cost some money. And that is the money you are spending on Jio Prime membership. For this membership you will pay Rs 99 and that will give you prime membership for one year, which includes three months that are part of the Summer Surprise offer. This is negligible amount of money. Essentially, you are paying less than Rs 9 for 28GB data plus other free services.

What happens to Prime users who recharged for less than Rs 303?

They will get Jio services but not the Summer Surprise offer. Although, all the users who subscribed to Rs 149, can now again do a Rs 303 or higher recharge before April 15 to get Summer Surprise offer.

But yet, the question remains how this Rs 149 (or any other recharge users may have already done) will be adjusted. For now, Jio hasn't offered clarity on this but given how willing the company so far has been to retain users, it is almost certain that you will not lose this money