Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, is offering the cheapest SMS bundled prepaid plan to the users. After the tariff hikes, SMS bundled prepaid plans became very expensive. So much so that Reliance Jio had written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) complaining about the same. Post that, TRAI ordered that operators will allow free port out SMS to 1900 whether or not the plan comes with SMS benefits. After a few days from the complaint, Jio became the operator offering the cheapest SMS bundled prepaid plan for Rs 199. But now, Airtel is offering SMS benefits with an even more affordable plan.
Bharti Airtel Rs 99 Plan Offering SMS Benefits
Bharti Airtel’s Rs 99 prepaid plan is offering SMS benefits to consumers. The Rs 99 plan doesn’t offer unlimited data and voice calling benefits. Users get Rs 99 worth of talktime, 200MB of data, tariff calls at one paise per second and SMS at Rs 1 for local SMS while Rs 1.5 STD for each SMS. This plan carries a total validity of 28 days.
Jio’s plan of Rs 119 is Rs 20 more expensive, but it is also an unlimited benefits prepaid plan. Users get 1.5GB of daily data, 300 SMS, and unlimited voice calling for 14 days. Users get a subscription to a suite of Jio applications such as JioCinema, JioTV, JioCloud, and JioSecurity.
The Rs 99 prepaid plan from Bharti Airtel is the cheapest plan in the industry to offer SMS benefits to consumers. While there are no Airtel Thanks benefits, users still get voice calling, data, and SMS benefits.
After the TRAI order for free porting out SMS, it doesn’t make sense for the telcos to not offer SMS benefits with their lower-end plans. Telcos can’t stop their low-end users from porting out anyway, so it is better only that they offer SMS benefits and keep users happy to retain them longer.
