Airtel, Jio and Vi Voice Only Plans Aren’t Really “Affordable”

airtel jio and vi voice only plans

Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) recently brought new voice and SMS-only prepaid plans. TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) had ordered the private telcos to bring these plans. The idea behind the order was that people could get affordable options for keeping their SIM active. There were no SMS and voice-only plans, and thus even for keeping SIM active, users had to recharge with data plans. Voice and SMS packs have resolved this issue for the customers. But the net effect of the arrival of these plans is actually worse for the consumers than before. Let us understand how.

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Read More – Jio, Airtel and Vi Every Voice and SMS Packs Listed

Indian Telcos Found a Loophole and Exploited it

The private Indian telcos brought new voice and SMS packs, but they are almost similarly priced as their old value plans. For example, let’s take a look at the Rs 1899 plan from Jio that was removed recently. It used to come with 336 days of validity, offered 24GB of data, and unlimited calling with 3600 SMS. Now, instead of this plan, Jio is offering the Rs 1748 plan, which doesn’t bundle data, and offers unlimited voice calling, and 3600 SMS for 336 days.

The average daily cost of keeping the SIM active with the Rs 1899 plan was Rs 5.65, and users also got 24GB of data. However, with the Rs 1748 plan, the average daily cost comes only marginally down to 5.20 and the data has been removed. So basically, Jio has removed the data, and the price of keeping SIM active is almost the same.