Last week, Reliance Jio made a major move and reduced the validity of its yearly plan to 336 days. Jio's newly launched Rs 2,121 prepaid plan is now being marketed as the one with 12 months validity, and why not, because telecom operators always stated that a month for prepaid users would be 28 days and not like postpaid users. It can also be noticed that Reliance Jio has reduced the validity of the existing Rs 1,299 yearly prepaid plan to 336 days. So in Jio's words, an annual plan will offer validity of 336 days (28*12). This isn't a good move at all considering consumers will have to recharge for another 28 days even after choosing a 12 months pack on Jio's network. Right now, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL are offering yearly plans with 365 days validity, but they might soon follow the footsteps of Reliance Jio.
Jio Rs 1,299 Prepaid Plan Sees Validity Reduction
After the December 2019 tariff revision, Reliance Jio had two long-term or annual plans on offer- Rs 2,199 (being on offer at Rs 2,020 since the start of 2020) and Rs 1,299. Both the plans shipped with benefits for 365 days from the date of recharge. Reliance Jio pulled the Rs 2,020 or Rs 2,199 yearly plan and replaced with Rs 2,121 prepaid recharge last week. While it did not entirely remove the Rs 1,299 annual pack, the telco revised the validity to 336 days- a downgrade by 29 days. So Jio's long-term plans of Rs 2,121 and Rs 1,299 now come with 12 months or 336 days validity, since a month accounts for 28 days in the prepaid segment.
As for the benefits of Rs 1,299 prepaid plan, they remain the same; The plan offers 24GB of 4G data, unlimited Jio to Jio voice calling, 12,000 non-Jio minutes and 3600 SMSes, valid for 336 days. The Rs 2,121 prepaid plan comes with 1.5GB data per day, 12,000 non-Jio FUP minutes, 100 SMSes per day and unlimited on-net calling for the same 336 days.
Another thing worth noting is Reliance Jio no longer marketing both the plans as yearly plans, instead, the company these are long-term offerings with 12 months validity.
Airtel and Vodafone Idea Might Soon Follow Jio in Reducing the Validity
Similar to Reliance Jio, incumbents Airtel and Vodafone Idea have two long-term offerings; Airtel has two yearly plans of Rs 2,398 and Rs 1,498, whereas Vodafone Idea is providing Rs 2,399 and Rs 1,499 annual plans to the users. As the name 'annual' itself suggests, they offer validity of 365 days. However, both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea might soon follow Reliance Jio in reducing the validity of annual plans to 336 days.
For the unaware, all the monthly prepaid plans from top telcos (Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL) have 28 days validity, so Jio is now bringing the trend that 336 days will be equal to a year in the prepaid segment. For example, the Rs 249 prepaid plan from Bharti Airtel comes with 1.5GB daily data, unlimited voice calling and 100 SMSes per day for a period of 28 days. The same plan, if a user recharges for 12 months, will cost them Rs 2,988 and offers an overall validity of 336 days.
Nevertheless, if a Reliance Jio prepaid customer looking for a yearly plan, then he/she is unlucky as they have to perform additional one month recharge on top of the long-term recharges like Rs 2,121 and Rs 1,299.
