After a hectic month of revising tariff plans, telcos seem to have settled now, especially Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India. The former has now come with an entry-level plan of Rs 9 under its Prepaid Promise scheme. This new plan from Airtel competes with Reliance Jio's Rs 19 plan, and in fact, it's better. Airtel is providing unlimited voice calls, 100 SMS and 100MB data with this new plan, whereas Jio's Rs 19 offers unlimited calls, 20 SMS and 150MB of data. Jio's plan gives you an additional 50MB of data, whereas Airtel is offering 80 SMS more than Jio.
This new plan from Airtel is an open market one and is available in all the circles where Airtel has its operations. We have checked this plan availability in some circles such as Mumbai, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh & Telangana, Karnataka and all the circles were eligible for this Rs 9 plan. Airtel's website also displayed this new tariff plan in all the circles under Combo Offer section. So, it' safe to assume that Airtel is offering this plan as an open market one, which is a good thing to counter Reliance Jio.
This plan is specially designed for users who're looking for a one-day pack with limited usage. And it doesn't even burn a hole in your pocket too. Like Reliance Jio, Airtel also has a Rs 19 tariff plan, and with that plan, Airtel is providing benefits such as unlimited calls including roaming calls, 100 SMS and 200MB 3G/4G data for all handsets with one-day validity. And this is an open market plan too. Then there's another open market Rs 23 tariff plan which provides the same benefits of unlimited calls, 100 SMS per day and 100MB data for two days.
Going by these plans, Airtel is slightly ahead of Jio, and we're expecting Jio to come out with new entry-level plans very soon. Its been a while since Jio revised these entry-level plans of Rs 19 and Rs 52. And now, it looks like the time has arrived.
But again, the special mention here goes to Airtel to staying on top of Jio, at least in the entry-level segment. Other telcos should come up with such plans to keep the basic users on board, otherwise they'll port out to MNP for the Rs 98 tariff plan.
