Sunday Talk: Is Limiting Data Usage per Day on Prepaid Plans a Good Move From Telcos?

If we talk about prepaid plans nowadays, then the ‘Daily Data‘ or ‘Data Per Day‘ words will appear more often. That’s one of the trending aspects in Indian telecom sector right now. The concept of daily data was first introduced by Reliance Jio (one of the many firsts the new entrant implemented). As always, every other telecom operator joined the train and implemented the same. Right now, we have a prepaid plan from Jio offering 42GB of 4G data at just Rs 149 per month. Just rollback to July 2016, a customer on Airtel or Vodafone or Idea Cellular network used to pay Rs 255 for just 1GB of 4G/3G/2G data. But there’s no limit on the 1GB of data usage though. Now, the 42GB data is divided into 1.5GB data per day, post which the speed will be reduced to a mere 64 Kbps.

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In the past, there was no such data limit on prepaid plans, of course, the benefits which we used to get are nowhere close to the benefits we’re getting right now. But the main question here is: Are you satisfied with the daily data limit put up by the telecom operators? You might be in the mindset- if you’re not satisfied, move over to postpaid which doesn’t have any such daily limit and even offers data rollover option (limited to some telcos). The postpaid plans are pricier than prepaid plans. In prepaid, users are getting 42GB of data on Jio network at Rs 149, but the same operator is charging Rs 199 (excluding taxes) and offering 25GB of data with its JioPostpaid plan.

Limiting the data usage is understandable from the telcos part, however, consumers are not satisfied with this move (at least some around me), especially on Idea Cellular, Vodafone and BSNL networks. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel offer an after FUP speed of 64 Kbps with their prepaid plans having the daily data limit, but the other three telcos are not offering any such benefit (BSNL has after FUP speed with some prepaid plans, but not all like Airtel and Jio).