After getting poor response and backlash from consumers on the newly launched data pack which charges a huge upfront fee to offer extra data as such low rates of Rs 50-52/GB; third largest telecom operator Idea Cellular finally increased the data freebies by 250% to attract customers who are interested in Jio because of the latter's claim to offer data services at a low rate of Rs 50/GB.
Few weeks before Jio's commercial launch, Bharti Airtel launched a similar pack which was later followed by Idea Cellular and Vodafone. But most of the customers found it to be a costly plan since to get 1GB of 3G/4G data at Rs 50 for a year, one is required to pay an upfront fee of Rs 1498.
This kind of huge rates impacted the cost-effective face of Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular, which is why soon they revised the plan with 6 GB of free data as freebies for the first month. But this time to make the pack attractive and value for money, Idea has taken another step to add 250% more data on top of old benefits of 6 GB free data for a month. Which means, Idea Cellular customers who want cost effective data rates can get 15 GB of free data against the upfront fee of Rs 1498.
Considering the current market data rates, the freebies seems value for money as most of the operators are charging Rs 1500 to offer 15 GB 3G/4G data. So, there's no such upfront fee virtually. Though, still it's only attractive to high value data customers who spend 5-20 GB per month. Though, for customers who spend on average and smaller data packs, Idea has also revised its freebies on Rs 748 and Rs 496 pack where customers can get data benefits at slightly lower than current market rates.
Only time will tell whether this new approach will help Idea prevent the churn of its existing subscribers.
