Lately, Vodafone India is aiming at the basic users with its voice-only tariff plans. After rolling out a plethora of prepaid plans such as Rs 279 and Rs 189, the UK-based telco which recently announced the completion of its merger with Idea Cellular, has now introduced a couple of prepaid plans priced at Rs 99 and Rs 109. The best part of these plans is they come with 28 days validity. While the Rs 99 prepaid plan is a pure voice-only prepaid plan, the Rs 109 prepaid plan comes with a little amount of data benefit. Going by the pricing, Vodafone is taking on BSNL's voice-only prepaid plan of Rs 99 which comes with benefits valid for 26 days. Bharti Airtel has a combo prepaid plan of Rs 99 which offers benefits for a period of 28 days, although it's a segmented plan.
Vodafone Rs 99, Rs 109 Prepaid Plans: Benefits and Validity
As the prices of both the plans itself state, Vodafone is aiming them at Jio's popular Rs 98 plan which is giving its users unlimited calling, 2GB of data and SMS benefits for 28 days. The Rs 99 plan from Vodafone provides a user with unlimited local, STD and roaming calls for 28 days, while the Rs 109 offers 1GB of data as well on top of unlimited calling. Unlike Jio and Airtel, Vodafone is still limiting the voice calls to 250 minutes per day, 1000 minutes per week and a user can make voice calls to 100 unique numbers during the entire validity period.
Both the New Plans are Aimed at Basic Users
With these new tariff plans, Vodafone is aiming at luring basic users who just rely on voice calling, which is the reason why the telco is not giving any data benefit with the Rs 99 and the Rs 109 plan comes with just 1GB of data. But as mentioned, Vodafone is lagging behind Jio and Airtel by limited voice calls on a daily, weekly basis. However, once the telco achieves pan-India VoLTE coverage, it will likely scrap the limit on voice calling.
Vodafone Rs 109 Plan vs Jio Rs 98 Prepaid Plan
While the Rs 99 prepaid plan is a voice-only plan, the Rs 109 comes with a small amount of data which makes it compete with Jio's Rs 98 plan. With its prepaid plan of Rs 98, Reliance Jio is giving its users 2GB of 4G data, unlimited voice calls without any FUP limit and 300 text messages with a validity period of 28 days. That said, Vodafone is lagging behind in all the three areas as it limits the voice calls, offers 1GB fewer data and doesn't provide any SMS benefit entirely.
Vodafone Rs 99 Plan vs BSNL Rs 99 Plan
Not only private telecom operators, but Vodafone India is also competing with the state-run BSNL with its new plans. BSNL also has a Rs 99 prepaid plan offering unlimited voice calling to any network in the country, except for those in Mumbai and Delhi circles. But again, BSNL's voice calling is unlimited while Vodafone has a limitation on the calling.
Idea Cellular Will Likely Launch These Plans Too
In the last two weeks or so, Idea Cellular is launching all the tariff plans which exist on Vodafone's portfolio, so that they can unify the tariff portfolio for the merged entity Vodafone Idea Limited. In the next few days, Idea Cellular will likely launch the two new plans of Rs 99 and Rs 109 to match Vodafone.
