The advent of Reliance Jio in India has certainly led to massive insecurity amongst the already existing telecom operators like Airtel and Vodafone in the country. And now, they are scaling down the cost of their services so as to keep consumers from shifting to the largely free Reliance Jio. Airtel is the latest service provider to offer free calls to subscribers.
Airtel customers can now enjoy the benefit of free calls along with data in the company’s newest bundle packs. Airtel has today announced a plan under which it offers unlimited voice calls and 4G data. With a mere INR 345 recharge, Airtel prepaid users will be able to make unlimited calls to any network and get 1GB of 4G data for 28 days.
Another plan that it offers is for Rs 145, under which the users will get 300 MB of 4G data and unlimited calls within the Airtel network for 28 days.
The news of the new Airtel plans with free unlimited calls comes right after Reliance Jio unveiled a three-month extension to its promotional offer of free voice and data services, which will now end in March 2017.
FYI, Reliance Jio, had launched its services in September with unlimited voice calling, SMS, national roaming and 4G data for all users till December 31. And while the quality of voice calls and data isn’t great everywhere, its essentially free.
It is not just Airtel which is trying to be at par with the incomparable rates of Reliance Jio. Other private service providers and even the state-run BSNL appear to be feeling threatened by Reliance Jio. Earlier in the week, BSNL had also offered attractive plans to its users.
Vodafone has also announced ‘Double data plan’ for its prepaid users recently. The telecom operator now offers double 4G data usage under existing schemes priced above Rs 255 — essentially slashing its prices by 50 per cent.
Vodafone said in a statement,
All Vodafone 4G pre-paid customers can now avail ‘Double Data’ benefits on existing market packs and will enable Vodafone customers to enjoy an enhanced mobile internet experience. This offer is applicable on all 4G market packs starting from Rs 255.
Aircel isn’t untouched either and has launched a new offer under which, subscribers get free Aircel to Aircel Local and STD calling along with free Aircel to others (local and STD with a free usage of 15,000 seconds/month for three months) for 90 days with their first Recharge of Rs 149. In addition to this, customers also get the benefit of unlimited 2G data for one month.
It might interest you to know that when mobile was first launched in India by West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and Union Communications Minister Sukh Ram in 1995, the call rates were as high as Rs 16 per minute. I am sure many of our readers remember the times when incoming calls also incurred charges. And now, companies are falling over themselves to offer free voice calls.
