Bharti Airtel, the country’s leading telecom operator, has reportedly launched two aggressive bundled plans at Rs 145 and Rs 349 to counter Reliance Jio’s Prime offer, which will offer unlimited voice calls and 1 GB data per day at just Rs 303 starting April 1.
Jio Prime subscription offer will be limited only to the existing 100 Million subscribers, and new users coming before March 31, 2017. Interested Jio customers will have to pay to pay a one-time subscription amount of Rs. 99 between March 1st, 2017 and March 31, 2017.
Under these packs, Bharti Airtel is offering 14 GB of 3G/4G data over a month, bundled with unlimited voice calls; The Economic Times reported citing a Credit Suisse note. However, there is a 0.5 GB or 500 MB a day cap on data usage.
The brokerage said that Airtel is offering unlimited on-net calls under the Rs 145 pack. The Rs 349 pack, on the other hand, offers unlimited voice calls to all networks.
The latest offers by Airtel could be seen aimed at retaining top and mid-tier users in the wake of aggressive plans of Reliance Jio, which has already caused disruption in the market leading to an increased consolidation activity.
Bharti Airtel was previously offering a bundled plan with 16 GB data, and unlimited voice calls cost as much as Rs 1,199. Its new plans offer as much as 70-80% discounts to existing customers who use a similar amount of data, according to Credit Suisse.
A large number of Airtel’s high-ARPU customers are likely to adopt the plans, Credit Suisse said.
Also read: Everything You Must Know About Airtel’s Free Data Roaming Service
“The advent of aggressive counter offers from Airtel even before the Jio Prime ads hit the billboard, signal tit-for-tat aggression from the telco, in a departure from its historical passive response to competition,” the brokerage said.
Also, Bharti Airtel has also started offering higher commissions to retailers to push these plans in the market.
