Vodafone Idea Limited has removed the entry-level postpaid plans of Rs 299 and below to boost its ARPU and concentrate on the users who generate revenue. As per a new report by ET Telecom, Idea postpaid customers who're currently on the low-value postpaid plan is receiving an SMS stating that they will be migrated to the Rs 399 Nirvana postpaid plan. For the unaware, even though Idea's website states the postpaid plans start at Rs 399, the company is providing other plans like Rs 349, Rs 299, Rs 199 and so on depending on the consumer's requirements. And the users on these plans will be migrating to the Rs 399 Nirvana postpaid plan. We have personally checked this info in Andhra Pradesh & Telangana circle and the company said the Nirvana range of postpaid plans now strictly start at Rs 399 and there will not be any customer-specific plans going forward.
Vodafone Idea Aims to Boost ARPU Like Bharti Airtel
Bharti Airtel has reported an increased ARPU of Rs 123 for the quarter that ended on March 31, 2019. Airtel's ARPU hike came at the cost of subscribers, but the company is pretty much clear that it just want the users who generate revenue for them. Now Vodafone Idea is also following the same path. We're unable to verify the removal of low-value postpaid plans on Vodafone network, but Idea has scrapped the entry-level plans in several circles.
“Dear Customer, your current Idea post-paid plan is no longer valid from 10-July-2019. You will be upgraded to Nirvana 399 with benefits of unlimited voice calls, 40GB high-speed data and 100 L/N SMS,” read the SMS sent to the Idea postpaid customers on a low-value postpaid plan. When contacted by ET Telecom, Vodafone Idea Limited stated: "We have made it simpler for our customers to enjoy the feature-rich experience of our postpaid plans.” So, it's clearly a circle specific move from the company.
To recall, Bharti Airtel removed the entry-level plans including the Rs 399 postpaid plan and Airtel's postpaid plans now start at Rs 499. However, the company quickly introduced circle specific postpaid plans of Rs 349 and Rs 399, noticing that the users are still looking for low-value plans in some areas.
Vodafone Idea might be following the same suit as the company did not make any official announcement regarding the removal of these low-cost postpaid plans.
Vodafone Takes on Bharti Airtel With New Family Postpaid Plans
In other news, Vodafone has introduced Red Plans for Family taking on Airtel's myPlan Infinity postpaid plans. Overall, Vodafone introduced three new plans of Rs 598, Rs 749 and Rs 999, and they offer up to five child connections. For example, the Rs 999 Red Plan for Family offers services for five connections (one primary and four child connections). The data for the primary connection is set as 80GB and the remaining four connections will get 30GB each, totalling the data to 200GB. And there's the data rollover functionality as well. These Red Plans for Family also ship with benefits like one-year of ZEE5 subscription, Amazon Prime worth Rs 999 for free, Vodafone Play subscription worth Rs 499 and more. But sadly, they don't offer free Netflix service though.
