While for most of the prepaid subscribers, the combo prepaid offerings have swept the stage, there are still some prepaid SIM users who miss the talk time era. Last year, when Bharti Airtel did away with talk time recharges, many users were lost in a dilemma since they gave up the lifetime free incoming calling benefit and the conventional recharge plans which were in usage since decades. However, to fill up for that gap, Bharti Airtel soon introduced Smart recharge packs for the prepaid subscribers so that they can maintain the minimum balance in their accounts to keep their services running. Some of the smart recharges also bundle some amount of data too, thus giving a user an appropriate solution for his or her cellular needs. Here are the details of the smart recharges which are available in Bharti Airtel’s portfolio.
Why Smart Recharge Plans are Important?
As noted, Bharti Airtel removed the talk time plans last year and also introduced minimum recharge scheme. Minimum recharge scheme essentially means prepaid subscribers will have to recharge for every 28 days, otherwise, their outgoing calling will be barred on the day when their unlimited combo plan expires, followed by incoming voice calling expiry after 15 days. Of course, not everyone will be able to recharge the Rs 119 prepaid plan every month, so that's why Airtel has launched these Smart Recharge plans starting at Rs 23 and going all the way up to Rs 245.
Smart Recharge Pack of Rs 245
The first smart recharge is the Rs 245 prepaid recharge which comes with 84 days validity and offers full talk time of Rs 245. In addition to the talk time, the recharge pack also bundles 2GB data which is for the entire validity period of 84 days. In this smart recharge pack, the calls are charged at 30p/min for local, STD and landline.
Smart Recharge Pack of Rs 145
Next up in Bharti Airtel’s smart recharge portfolio is the prepaid recharge pack of Rs 145 which again offers full talk time of Rs 145 and this pack bundles 1GB data for the subscribers. The validity of this plan is 42 days, which is just half of the validity of the Rs 245 smart recharge plan. In this smart recharge plan also, calls are charged at 30p/min for local, STD and landline.
Smart Recharge Pack of Rs 65
Under the price point of Rs 100, Bharti Airtel offers the smart recharge of Rs 65. Unlike the other two smart recharge packs mentioned above, the Rs 65 smart recharge pack does not come with full talk time offering, instead, it offers Rs 55 talk time to the users. The data offering in this pack is 200MB, and the validity of the smart recharge is 28 days. Unlike the above two offerings, the call charges in this recharge are 60p/min for STD, local and landline.
Smart Recharge Pack of Rs 35 and Rs 23
The next recharge in this roster is the Rs 35 smart recharge plan which ships 100MB data to the prepaid users in addition to Rs 26.55 talk time. The validity of this pack is also 28 days. Lastly, we have the Rs 23 smart recharge pack which although does not come with any talk time or data, it does offer extended validity for the user along with special rate for calls and SMS. Under this plan, the calls are charged at 2.5p/sec, local SMS are charged at Re 1 per SMS and STD SMS are charged at Rs 1.5 per SMS.
It is worth noting that although subscribers in the urban regions would opt for the combo packs because of their high data consumption, the Airtel prepaid subscribers in the rural areas would instead focus on keeping their services running with minimal spend. Also, the focus of such subscribers remains mainly on voice than data. In such a scenario, smart recharges are the way to go, especially keeping in mind that the traditional talk time recharges have been discontinued, the smart recharges are the only things which come close to the old conventional packs.
