Sometimes, rumors can spread so fast that it becomes difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction.
And often, what you need is just a small misunderstanding (or misreporting) for things to go wrong.
The story about Reliance Jio tariff coming with a plan of 75 GB and 4500 minutes for just Rs 200 is a case in point.
The information first appeared on the Financial Express website, where the article carried the headline: “Reliance Jio Info soft launch: Get 75GB 4G data, 4500 mins call time for Rs 200; offers freebies.” (see right)
Financial Express was referring to a PTI report to back up its claim. However, the PTI report — which was also carried by FE — did not say that Reliance Jio would offer 75 GB and 4500 minutes for Rs 200.
Instead, it said two different things — Reliance Jio’s SIM is going to cost around Rs 200, and that it had offered 75 GB and 4500 minutes to its employees when they were given a trial SIM for testing its network.
The exact words of the PTI report were: “For the soft launch, customers should be able to pick up a Jio SIM card for Rs 200, which should come with free data and voice valid for three months (as a benchmark the free usage offered to employees in the December launch was 75GB data and 4500 minutes calls).”
However, once Financial Express reported the news of “Get 75GB 4G data, 4500 mins call time for Rs 200” on March 29, more and more outlets carried it.
Hindustan Times, for example, tweeted the article the next day and the message was retweeted 90 times.
This was followed by many other tweets claiming the same thing, and the 75 GB for 200 rupees news was born, seemingly out of thin air.
People were soon ‘banking’ on the offer to teach others like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea “a lesson”.
“Eagerly waiting for this.. #Rcom shld teach a better lesson to their rivals like #Airtel #Vodafone,” said Pasupathi on Twitter, while sharing the Hindustan Times report.
“Ekdum yeh SIM card le lene ka hai! (This is the SIM card to get) @RelianceMobile Jio to give away 75 GB 4G data & 4500 mins for ₹200 at launch,” tweeted Ranjan Kant, attaching the Financial Express story.
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UPDATE: Today (Apr 4), Jio started supplying cellphone distributors with free SIM for bundling with its LYF handsets. Details here.
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Some have, quite logically, argued that it would be cheaper to buy new SIMs after exhausting 75 GB of data instead of making recharges. Normally, for a recharge of Rs 200, you get only about 700 MB of data in India.
If you’d like to read what Credit Suisse analysts really said about Jio’s launch and tariff, click here.
If you’d like to read about the tariff that they are likely to offer, click here. You can also read about another such incident involving rather colorful media reporting on Jio.
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Use and throw after using 75 GB of 4g data https://t.co/9johBwQJqx
— Raghav Tripathi (@raghavt07) March 30, 2016
Ekdum yeh SIM card le lene ka hai! @RelianceMobile Jio to give away 75 GB 4G data & 4500 mins for ₹200 at launch! https://t.co/YO4bdwV6JE
— Ranjan Kant (@ranjankant) March 30, 2016
@ashscribe Sir, guess that is why Reliance #Jio is planing on a launch of a Rs 200 Sim card with 75 GB, 4500 mins talk time 🙂
Team SNSMT
— SNSMT (@SNSMT) March 30, 2016
Reliance Jio will launch with an offer of 75 GB 4G data and 450 minutes for only Rs 200 wtfffffff.
— rajat (@FergiesFury) March 31, 2016
