One of the ways Reliance tried to show that the data costs are going to be less for users, is by including the data that is being given through the JioNet Wi-Fi hotspots. There is a dedicated data space offered for every prepaid or postpaid plan of Jio 4G and this won’t count to your regular data usage. In a way, it is advantageous, but in the other way, you are just going to see the data being of no use if you don’t connect to any hotspots regularly.
Reliance JioNet is a Wi-Fi HotSpot that will be available at several public places, and you will be able to access to one of them and use the data if you are a Jio subscriber. Reliance is planning to place about a million hotspots at several important places by March 2017, and the work has begun quite some time back. Let’s talk about the connection, the plans, and everything else around JioNet.
To begin with, you need to have the JioNet app installed on your device, which you directly download from the Google Play Store, or from the MyJio app. The app logs in you directly through your MyJio app but if it doesn’t, you can enter the Jio mobile number and get the OTP to authenticate and login, or use the actual login credentials if you have them.
The app will then use your location to determine where you are and find the nearest hotspots available to use. You won’t have to enter any passcode to connect to any hotspot because the public Wi-Fi profile of Jio is used automatically and you will be connected if you are close to a JioNet hotspot.
At my recent visit to the Reliance Jio experience center, I noticed how, even though the device using the Jio 4G network with active data, automatically connected itself to a Jionet hotspot that was available there. There are two major advantages here: 1. After the Jio commercial launch happens, you will save data and use more of Jionet data, which is double the amount in every plan, and 2. the battery life on your smartphone gets better because you are using Wi-Fi instead of data network connectivity.
The speeds on Jionet usually seem to be a bit better than that on a Jio network at the same place but that could differ.
If you don’t want to automatically connect to Jionet for some reason, the JioNet app settings has the option to turn it off. Only when you open the app, it will try to find for a hotspot and connect to it.
What are the charges for Wi-Fi usage on JioNet hotspot?
While we are not sure whether Reliance will allow non-subscribers to use the JioNet hotspot in any way, but if they do, we will soon get to know the pricing for that.
For the subscribers, there are different monthly plans under which one can get the data usage and JioNet usage for the amount they pay already. So, if you are subscribed to the Jio Prepaid Plans or Jio Postpaid Plans, you will already get the credits to use for free and you are just losing them if not using them.
