Bharti Airtel Smart Recharges and Jio IUC Talk Time Plans Are Similar, Combo Plans Win the Race

While the start of 2019 was a very competitive one for most of the telecom operators, with the data tariff war calming down and the prepaid plan portfolios competing head-on. Come to the end of the year, things have surely taken a different turn because of the regulatory proceedings in the industry. While Reliance Jio’s prepaid portfolio used to match the competition of the incumbents like Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel shoulder to shoulder, now the arrival of the IUC talk times and the new all-in-one recharges have skewed this comparison a little bit. Now, while these new IUC charges made their way into the industry as the 6 paise per minute charge on all outgoing calls to other networks, they were mostly disliked by the Reliance Jio users. After some initial rattling, the consumers started accepting these new prepaid plans. But, still, there is some divided opinion among the subscribers as to how these prepaid plans compare with the other prepaid offerings. Here is our take on the same.

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Introduction of Minimum Recharges and IUC

Firstly, to notice the kind of effect that the Reliance Jio new IUC talk time vouchers incited, it is crucial to recall the last few months of 2018, when the private telecom operators, namely Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea had introduced minimum recharge plans to increase their ARPU and to add paying customers. The reaction of the public that time too, was a negative one as the subscribers started migrating to other operators to avoid compulsorily paying the minimum recharge amount. This is similar to the reaction which Reliance Jio received from the public when it introduced the IUC charges a few weeks back. While the minimum recharge plans allowed the subscribers to make calls, or extend their validity simply, the new IUC plans also do a similar thing but only for outgoing call on the other networks.