The telecom sector is undergoing a tense period where service providers -- Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea -- have been at the losing end. In order to cut loses, invest in the digital infrastructure to be on par with the ever-growing technology in the telecommunications field globally, and maintain the quality standards of services, these companies had announced that they would increase the mobile calling and data charges from December. We have more information on it.
Firstly, all the three service providers will be hiking the mobile calling and data charges. While the price hike by Airtel and Vodafone Idea will come into effect from 12 a.m. December 3, the new rates by Jio will come into effect from 12 a.m. December 6. The revised tariff ranges from 10-45 per cent, and only select prepaid plans, vouchers, and first recharge options are getting expensive. You can read the details below.
While Jio hasn’t released the new plans, it announced that it will be launching new unlimited plans from December 6 that will raise tariff by up to 40 per cent. However, the company said with the new plans, customers will get up to 300 per cent more benefits and it will offer fair usage policy for outgoing calls from its subscribers on the network of other telecom operators. ‘Jio will be introducing new all-in-one plans with unlimited voice and data. These plans will have a fair usage policy for calls to other mobile networks. The new plans will be effective from 6th December 2019,’ Reliance Jio said in a statement.
Airtel’s new plans, represent tariff increases in the range of 50 paise/day to Rs 2.85/day. In addition, Airtel will provide exclusive benefits as part of the Airtel Thanks platform, which enables access to premium content from Airtel Xstream, Wynk Music, device protection, anti-virus protection among others. ‘Our new mobile plans offer tremendous value to our customers and are backed by a superior network experience on Airtel’s nationwide 4G network. Airtel will continue to make large investments in emerging technologies and digital platforms to deliver world-class experiences to our customers,’ Shashwat Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer, Bharti Airtel, said in a statement.
The plans that will get 50 paise/day increase in tariff are its Rs 35 and Rs 65 prepaid recharge plans. This essentially means that a subscriber has to pay Rs 49 and Rs 79 respectively for the plans that have a 28-day validity. These also come with more benefits. Instead of Rs 26.99 talk time, the Rs 49 pack will now offer talk time of Rs 38.52 with 100MB data. However, the new Rs 79 plan has a talk time of Rs 63.95 instead of Rs 130 talk time.
The Rs 129 prepaid plan that offers Rs 130 talk time and 2GB data for 28 days will now cost Rs 148. The prices of Rs 169 and Rs 199 plans will be merged, and a new plan of Rs 248 with 28-day validity, unlimited calling, 1.5GB data per day and 100 daily SMS will be launched. The Rs 249 plan is now priced at Rs 298 and offers a 28-day validity, unlimited calls, 2GB daily data and 100SMS per day. The costlier plans like the Rs 448 and Rs 499 plans are now priced at Rs 598 and Rs 698 respectively. They offer unlimited calls, 100SMS per day, 1.5GB and 2GB data respectively for 84 days. Airtel’s long-term validity Rs 998 and Rs 1699 plans will now be priced at Rs 1498 and Rs 2398 respectively. The two plans come with 365 days of validity and offer unlimited calls.
‘Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) said that the new plans will be available across India. In line with its commitment to provide customers with simple, convenient and affordable products, VIL has curated an optimum range of feature rich plans for both voice and data. Customers can avail their benefits by just selecting the plan best suited to their specific needs and continue to enjoy seamless connectivity across India,’ Vodafone Idea said in a statement.
As per the new tariffs shared by the company, the new combo vouchers are priced at Rs 49 and Rs 79 and subscribers will get Rs 38 and Rs 64 talk time for 28 days, along with 100MB and 200MB data validity respectively. When it comes to the unlimited packs with 28 days validity, the telecom giant now has four plans. The Rs 149 plan offers 2GB data with 300SMS, while the Rs 249 pack comes with 1.5GB daily data and 100 SMS per day. The Rs 299 and Rs 399 plans offer 2GB and 3GB data per day, along with 100 daily SMS. Do note that all of these plans have an FUP of 1000 minutes for off-net calls.
In the 84-day validity plan options, there’s the Rs 379 pack, which comes with unlimited calls and 3000 minutes of off-net calls, 6GB data and 1000SMS. There are also plans priced at Rs 599 and Rs 699, which offer 3000 minutes of calls to other networks, 1.5GB and 2GB of daily data, along with 100SMS of SMS per day. Two plans with 365 days of validity are priced at Rs Rs 1499 and Rs 2399 that offer 12000 off-net call minutes. The former option offers 24GB data and 3600 SMS, and the latter has 1.5GB daily data wiṭh 100 SMS.
The new recharge plans can be accessed from December 3 via:
• Apps – MyVodafone App, MyIdea App
• Websites – www.vodafone.in, www.ideacellular.com
• E-Wallets – Like PayTM, Google Pay, PhonePe, Amazon Pay, etc.
• USSD – Dial *121# from your Vodafone / Idea number
• Nearest Recharge Outlet or Vodafone Idea Store
