Before Reliance Jio made its announcement today, commentators were expecting that the company would end the free introductory service for users. But Jio has sprung a surprise and announced that the company would extend its free services offer to new customers till March 31st, 2017.
The impact on the competition was immediately visible: as Mukesh Ambani started speaking, Idea and Bharti Airtel saw shares plunge. Existing Reliance Jio customers will be shifted to this new plan as well, which is named the ‘Happy New Year Plan’. 
Free services till March 31st means that Jio will end the financial year with a big subscriber number that includes free subscribers, with no dropoff. This also means that shares of Idea and Airtel - which had begun creeping up last week in expectation of free Jio services ending, - will continue to take a beating. Ambani reserved some bile for Airtel, Idea and Vodafone (LON:VOD), saying that the Jio rivals have blocked 900 crore calls from the Jio network. The drop rate however, has come down to 20% from 90% at the time of launch, he said.
Besides the immediate headline of free services, Reliance Jio is working to rapidly build other advantages over its competition. It is providing under 5 minute activation and an e-KYC service to verify ID through Aadhaar, making it easier for a customer to quickly get a working connection. While both Airtel and Idea have also launched e-KYC verification services, Reliance has the highest coverage so far across 200,000 Reliance Jio outlets. Jio, Ambani says, will double this footprint to 400,000 stores by the time the free offers end in March.
Where does this leave Airtel and Idea? Airtel, the market leader, is better placed to get through Jio's salvo to capture market share: it is comfortably placed as far as spectrum and market share is concerned. Idea however, has higher debt on its balance sheet, more limited spectrum and is constrained in cutting prices to combat Jio. Analysts have speculated that Idea may even exit the tower business to reduce the debt burden on its financials.
The winners for the foreseeable future are definitely the customers, for whom its raining free data. Jio said that data consumption among its customers is 30 times the average on other networks, reminding one of what happens when you are offered an all you can eat buffet.