Reliance Industries Ltd Chairman Mukesh Ambani has announced that data and voice services on the Jio mobile platform will remain free until March 31, 2017, up from an earlier deadline of December 31, 2016.

In an official announcement on Thursday, Ambani called this the "Jio Happy New Year Offer" which he said will automatically be activated on all existing Jio SIM cards.

Watch: Reliance Jio Announcement

He said in flat three months, Reliance Jio has become the fastest growing technology company, ahead of Facebook, WhatsApp and Skype.

Read also: Reliance Jio Live: Free Data, Calls And Apps Till March 31

The service now completely supports mobile number portability - the ability to seamlessly migrate from one mobile service provider to the other without changing the number. However, Ambani said around 900 crore calls from Jio to 3 other large telecom operators were blocked for lack of support from existing telecom companies.

Congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his "bold and historic decision to demonetise old currency," Ambani said the PM has brought unproductive money into productive use in one move.

Calling demonetisation the strongest push yet towards a digital economy, he said with Jio Money every Indian will now have a digital ATM in their hands.

Read also: Reliance Jio: 10 Key Things Mukesh Ambani Announced Today

Key highlights of Mukesh Ambani's speech:

1) Aadhar based eKYC activation. There are 2 lakh eKYC outlets across the country. This is nearly equal to the total number of ATMS in India. The number to be doubled soon.

2) Voice Interconnect issue: Call block rates come down from 90% to nearly 20 percent. Jio now fully supports MNP.

3) Jio has recently introduced home delivery of Jio SIMs. The service will be available in top 100 cities by December 31, 2016.

4) Network speed: 8 percent Jio towers experienced congestion. 92 percent experiencing high data speeds. Jio is working to decongest these 8% towers.

5) Starting December 5, every merchant can download Jio Money Merchant Solutions. Merchants can also make supplier payments, transfer money to bank accounts and also use digital petty cash.

(Disclosure: News18.com is part of Network18 Media & Investment Limited which is owned by Reliance Industries Limited that also owns Reliance Jio.)