In line with its announcement made on November 18, Bharti Airtel today introduced new tariff plans for prepaid users. Airtel's new prepaid plans start at Rs 19 and they will be effective from December 3, 2019. Airtel's Rs 1,699 yearly prepaid plan will be available for Rs 2,398 going forward and the company also extended the validity of Rs 1,498 plan. Some of Airtel's new plans include Rs 49, Rs 79, Rs 148, Rs 298, Rs 598 and so on. The former leading telecom operator also says there's a FUP limit on voice calls made to other networks, but the company did not reveal the exact FUP though. For example, Vodafone Idea has a voice calling cap of 12,000 minutes on its yearly prepaid plan of Rs 2,398. But Airtel did not mention anything as such in the press release sent to us.
Airtel Prepaid Plans With 28 Days Validity Detailed
Bharti Airtel has a total of five prepaid plans offering 28 days validity. There are two plans under Rs 100 priced at Rs 49 and Rs 79; The Rs 49 basic plan offers Rs 38.52 talk time and 100MB data, whereas the Rs 79 plan comes with Rs 63.95 talk time along with 200MB data. Both the plans will be valid for 28 days and the service validity will expire after the said validity period.
As for the other Airtel prepaid plans with 28 days validity, we have the Rs 148 offering that ships with unlimited calling, 300 SMSes and 2GB data benefit. There's the new Rs 248 prepaid plan which ships with 1.5GB data per day, 100 SMSes per day and unlimited voice calling for 28 days.
Moving on, we have the Rs 298 plan which is the premium 28 days plan from the company after the new revision. Airtel is offering unlimited voice calling, 2GB data per day and 100 SMSes per day with this plan. The Rs 248 and Rs 298 prepaid plans from Airtel come with Airtel Xstream Premium, Wynk Music, Free Hello Tunes and Anti Virus Mobile Protection subscriptions for the entire validity period.
The basic Rs 19 plan from Airtel comes with unlimited voice calling, 100 SMSes and 150MB data for two days, and it's the only plan which did not receive a price hike today.
Airtel Prepaid Plans With At least 84 Days Validity Detailed
Similar to Vodafone Idea, Airtel is not shipping any prepaid plans with 70 days validity or any plans with validity between 28-70 days. Next plan in Airtel's prepaid portfolio is the Rs 598 one that comes with unlimited voice calling, 100 SMSes per day and 1.5GB data per day for 84 days. There's also as a Rs 698 prepaid plan which provides a user with unlimited voice calling, 2GB data per day and 100 SMSes per day, again for 84 days.
Lastly, we have the two annual plans from Airtel, which are priced at Rs 1,498 and Rs 2,398. The Rs 1,498 plan is a pretty basic annual plan offering unlimited voice calling, 3600 SMSes and 24GB data benefit for 365 days. The Rs 2,398 prepaid plan from Bharti Airtel comes with unlimited voice calling, 100 SMSes per day and 1.5GB data per day for the same 365 days validity period.
According to an industry observer the new pricing represents a very modest increase. The effective revision in today’s context is equal to what a customer would pay for one Rs 10 cup of Chai every week at a roadside stall.
Bharti Airtel Also Capping Voice Calls to Other Networks
It was Reliance Jio back in October which started capping the voice calls to other networks from the basic prepaid plans. The Mukesh Ambani-led telco has come up with IUC Top-Up plans which allowed the users to make voice calls to rival networks at six paise per minute. Every Vodafone Idea prepaid plan introduced earlier today came with FUP minutes for off-net voice calls. Airtel also says there's a FUP limit for unlimited calling to other networks on every prepaid plan, but the company did not specify the exact limit though.
The telco did confirm the voice calls post the FUP limit will be charged at six paise per minute, similar to Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea.
Do make a note that these are the new tariff prices for some of the popular Airtel plans which means the company did not reveal the entire prepaid portfolio. Airtel's website and mobile app will be updated very soon post which we will get to see the new plans across different price categories.
