Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks

Telecom operators are showering attractive data plans on users so that they can enjoy the ongoing Indian Premier League cricket matches on their smartphones. Bharti Airtel has now come up with a new prepaid plan of Rs 499 which offers a whopping 164GB of high-speed 4G data for the validity period. Alongside the data benefit, the plan also gives unlimited voice calls and 100 SMS per day. This new plan is in-line with the competitive plans introduced by Reliance Jio and BSNL for its users to enjoy the live streaming of IPL 2018. Jio has come up with a Rs 251 data pack, while BSNL introduced a Rs 248 data pack for prepaid users.

The Rs 499 prepaid plan from Bharti Airtel offers 2GB data per day and that too high-speed 4G data along with unlimited voice calls (even on roaming), 100 SMS per day for 82 days. The voice calls are unlimited without any FUP limit per day or month, but the SMSs per day is capped at 100 per day.
This plan from Airtel goes against Jio’s Rs 498 prepaid tariff plan that also offers 2GB data per day, unlimited voice calls without any FUP limit and 100 SMS per day for 91 days. Jio’s plan gives 182GB of data as compared to Airtel’s 164GB of data benefit. However, the best part is Airtel looking to compete with Reliance Jio by introducing such plans.
The lesser validity might not be a worry for many users, but the segmented availability of the plan is a worry for users. Yes, this plan from Airtel is valid for only select prepaid users as always, but the company might make it an open market plan very soon to stay in competition with Jio.