Bharti Airtel has officially discontinued the Rs 49 prepaid plan for the users. The second-largest telecom operator in the country had already stopped providing the plan in certain regions but hadn’t announced anything. However, today, Bharti Airtel has officially announced that it is discontinuing the Rs 49 prepaid plan for the users from July 29, 2021. Post the concerned date, the cheapest prepaid plan that users will be able to recharge with is the Rs 79 plan. Let’s take a look at what the users get with this plan.
Bharti Airtel’s Cheapest Plan Is Not Rs 49 Plan Anymore
Bharti Airtel’s new cheapest plan now costs Rs 79 instead of Rs 49 earlier. The Rs 79 plan is Rs 30 more expensive than the Rs 49 plan but offers 2x more data and four times more outgoing voice calling minutes to the users.
The Rs 79 plan comes with Rs 64 worth of talktime and users are charged 1p/sec for calling. Further, users are provided with 200MB of data for a validity of 28 days. This move is in line with Airtel aiming for a higher average revenue per user (ARPU).
Many users who were the fan of Rs 49 plan will now have to recharge with the Rs 79 plan instead. This should help Bharti Airtel improve its ARPU marginally since there’s not a very big price difference between the two plans. Many users are already recharging with the Rs 79 plan since the Rs 49 plan isn’t available in their area/region for quite some time now.
Whether this is a good move by the telco or not, there’s no saying. One thing that Airtel has made clear is that it doesn’t want too many low ARPU customers in its portfolio. The telco is aiming to reach an ARPU of Rs 200 and with a tariff hike around the corner, its ARPU is going to grow even further.
