Idea Cellular is not known for introducing affordably priced tariff plans, but the company has some decent prepaid tariff plans under its belt which puts it against the likes of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. Idea has two long-validity plans of Rs 897 and Rs 1197, which earlier used to offer benefits for 84 days, however, the plans are now providing benefits for 70 days. Alongside these plans, Idea also has a Rs 697 tariff plan which also offers benefits for 70 days, instead of the earlier 84 days. The Rs 697 plan offers 1.5GB data per day; the Rs 897 plan gives 2GB data per day, and lastly, the Rs 1,197 plan gives 2.5GB data per day.
However, this data benefit is valid only for 4G smartphone users. And for non-4G handset users, the data benefit differs by a massive margin. The Rs 697 plan offers 6GB data for the entire 70 days validity period for users without a 4G handset. And the same applies to Rs 897 and Rs 1,197 plans as they offer 15GB and 30GB data respectively for the entire validity period.
So for 4G handset users, the Rs 697 plan gives a total data benefit of 105GB, followed by the Rs 897 plan with 140GB data and finally the Rs 11,97 plan gives 175GB of data.
Besides the data benefit, these plans also offer unlimited voice calls including roaming calls and 100 SMS per day for the entire validity period. However, the voice calls are limited to 250 minutes per day and 1000 minutes per week, which is a massive letdown for Idea Cellular prepaid users.
These plans go head on head with Airtel's Rs 999 tariff plan, which offers benefits of unlimited voice calls, 60GB data with no FUP per day or week and 100 SMS per day for 90 days. However, Idea's earlier validity was much better at 84 days, but now the validity has come to 70 days. And these plans are also eligible for Idea Magic offer, which gives a cashback of up to Rs 3,300.
Idea Cellular must have designed these plans for customers looking for long-validity plans. However, do make a note that Reliance Jio's 1.5GB and 2GB data per day plans are much affordable than these plans of Idea Cellular. Jio is offering 1.5GB data per day for 70 days at just Rs 349 and 2GB data per day for 70 days at Rs 398. That's half the price of Idea Cellular's prepaid plans.
