There has been some drastic revamp to the prepaid plans of Bharti Airtel. By a drastic change, we do not intend to refer to revised tariff rates or data limits. Instead, the largest telco of the country has decided that it would now make their plans truly unlimited by allowing a speed of 128 Kbps post the completion of FUP limit. Until now, BSNL and Reliance Jio had been the only company in the Indian telecom sector which were providing users with truly unlimited data with a speed cap post the completion of data FUP limit. It has been some time since the users have been urging the telco to roll out the unlimited data service, now the Airtel users have a reason to rejoice.
For those who're unaware, Airtel's unlimited prepaid combo plans come with a per day data cap. For example, take the Rs 199 tariff plan by Airtel which offers 1.4GB data per day. Once the user consumes the 1.4GB, they've to either recharge with a separate data pack or have to wait until the clock to turn 12 AM to get the next day's 1.4GB quota. But now, Airtel will be offering data at 128 Kbps even after the completion of 1.4GB data benefit, making the data benefit truly unlimited. That's not the high-speed data by any standard, but it will be alright to send and receive WhatsApp messages, which has become a quintessential part of every person's day-to-day life.
This trend again was started by Reliance Jio itself. The telco when it launched the per day data benefit plans introduced the after FUP speed of 128 Kbps, but right now, it's offering an after FUP speed of 64 Kbps with all its prepaid plans. BSNL, on the other hand, is offering the same 128 Kbps after FUP speed with some of its prepaid plans.
Airtel's unlimited prepaid combo plans of Rs 199, Rs 249, Rs 349, Rs 399, Rs 448, Rs 499, Rs 509 and so on are eligible for the after FUP speed of 128 Kbps. The other two telcos Vodafone India and Idea Cellular are yet to implement the same on their portal, but it's highly unlikely the telcos will implement this because they're currently in the process of getting necessary approvals for the merger.