The tariff war between telecom operators is going at a rapid pace right now, and every time, Bharti Airtel is emerging as a winner. Today, the telco has come up with a new and most impressive tariff plan yet to date. Airtel is offering 5GB of 3G/4G data for its prepaid subscribers under Rs 100. Airtel has silently introduced a Rs 98 prepaid data plan, which gives users 5GB of data for 28 days, bringing down the effective cost of per GB to Rs 19.6, which used to be around Rs 255 a little over 18 months ago. Do make a note that this is a data-only plan and doesn’t offer any voice calling benefits.
As usual with Airtel, this plan is valid only for select prepaid subscribers in select regions. When we checked for the plan's availability in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana circle, it was valid for more than five prepaid numbers, but in Delhi circle, it's valid only just one number out of five numbers we checked. Also, we observed that most of the plan users who received this Rs 98 tariff plan are also eligible for the Rs 93 tariff plan with 28 days benefit.
This Rs 98 tariff plan doesn't match with the Airtel's combo STVs, but it's a separate data STV plan which makes it a special one. And the 5GB data can be used at any point of time, irrespective of the 1.4GB daily limit with the combo STVs.
Airtel is aggressively revising its tariff plans. For some users, the same plan is offering 2GB of data with five days validity and for some, the same 2GB with 28 days validity. Airtel is also offering a Rs 49 tariff plan with 1GB data for 28 days and for some users one-day validity. These plans are confusing by a huge margin, thanks to Airtel' segmented offer policy.
For some users, Airtel has also revised the Rs 49 prepaid data plan, and instead of offering 1GB data for a specific period, the telco is bundling the validity period with the existing unlimited combo plan. For example, if you're on the Rs 199 prepaid unlimited combo plan, then recharging with the Rs 49 plan will give the validity for 28 days.