Before Reliance Jio's entry into the Indian market, choosing a postpaid connection over prepaid used to be a right choice. However, that isn't the case as Reliance Jio has changed the entire prepaid segment in the country with its high data offering and unlimited voice calling. That said, incumbents like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea quickly revamped their prepaid plans to match Reliance Jio. However, the postpaid segment is equally important to the telcos as they generate revenue to the companies. Postpaid plans now ship with several other benefits like device security, free subscriptions to OTT services, data carry forward feature and so on. A couple of months ago, telcos- Airtel and Vodafone Idea revamped their postpaid offerings to attract more users on board. But should you choose a postpaid connection.
The Postpaid Advantage - No Cap on Data
The single best advantage that the postpaid plans offer the subscribers over the prepaid plans is no daily data limit. The subscribers of postpaid plan can decide to binge watch Netflix one day and spend a large amount of data without worrying, whereas for prepaid users such a thing would be a tough job. However, when it comes to Reliance Jio, the telco has the answer ready for these postpaid plans in the form of prepaid plans with massive daily data offering. These include 4GB daily data plans like Rs 509 valid for 28 days or 5GB daily data plan of Rs 799 also valid for 28 days. However, the catch is that you don’t enjoy any data rollover.
There is also the economics factor in this decision, as the consumers are going to consider the postpaid packs a little costlier than the prepaid plans. However, to this, we would say that given the number of benefits that the postpaid plans are offering, paired with the slightly higher monthly price of these plans makes total sense, for example, the Bharti Airtel Rs 499 monthly postpaid plan which bundles 75GB data in a month. This plan also offers Netflix subscription for three months, Amazon Prime for one year and Airtel Thanks benefits including Wynk Music, Airtel TV and more.
In the case of Reliance Jio, there's only one plan of Rs 199 that offers 25GB of data and no data carry forward feature though.
Airtel Planning High-End Postpaid Tier With Top-Notch Benefits
In other news, Bharti Airtel is planning a new offering called Airtel Black tier, which is rumoured to offer several industry-first features. Airtel Black will be part of Airtel Thanks programme and it will provide benefits like Airport Lounge access, new content offerings, international roaming plans, health insurance, discounts on consumer offerings and more.
Long Term Prepaid Plans vs Additional Benefits
Now there is also another option of long term prepaid plans in case the consumers want to be free from the hassle of paying up every month repeatedly and simply want to be done with the responsibility of paying once. To these customers, the prepaid plans with six-month validity or annual validity might make sense. Also, the Reliance Jio postpaid plan is something that only a handful of users will consider, and it can be said that the plan does not compare to the likes of Airtel, Vodafone Idea postpaid plans.
Verdict
Summarising, it would be our suggestion to the new buyers to go for a postpaid SIM of Airtel, or Vodafone Idea with a data leftover plan with optimum freebies to make the deal well worth their buck. However, that is something you don’t want and you can also make do with a certain amount of data every day, paired with the option of paying every once in a while, a long term prepaid plan might better suit your needs. Also, not to forget on the days when you run out of daily data limit, you can always recharge with an add-on pack. However, if you went for a Reliance Jio SIM, things change a little bit as we would suggest you to go for a prepaid plan entirely for the lack of a better option on the postpaid front.
