On October 9, Jio announced it would charge 6 paise a minute for calls to other networks. The calls were hitherto free.
That kicked up a storm, with angry customers saying the company had broken its promise of free calls.
The telecom battles---involving tariff, data packages and more---entered a new arena: social media.
Twitter became the eye of the storm with telecom companies taking not-so-veiled jabs at each other.
From Vodafone’s #FreeMeansFree campaign to Airtel’s #AbTohSahiChuno, the telecom giants were gunning for Jio.
Within 13 minutes of Jio’s announcement, Vodafone tweeted its customers could relax and keep enjoying the free calls promised. Their gif said, ‘Free means free.’
Idea put out just one ad, past midnight on October 10. It read, ‘Free calls on unlimited recharges. We truly mean it!’
Airtel also took a jibe at Jio, posting: ‘For some, unlimited means something else. For us, unlimited voice calls have always meant truly unlimited voice calls.’ The gif signed off with the text ‘Switch to a network that means what it says.’ In a barrage of ads, Vodafone and Airtel are saying they stick to their promises.
Jio hit back with snarky ads, all but naming and shaming their competitors. In their tweets, they snidely referred to Vodafone as ‘Woh-duh phone’.
On October 14, Jio put out an ad saying a user on a monthly average talks for 200 minutes to other networks, which means a billing of just Rs 12.
The ad war also brought up discussions on Internet speed and network coverage.