In 2018, amidst the falling revenues and declining profits, the private telecom operators decided to take an audacious step and did away with the talk time recharges which were selling continuously since the last decade and more. Before the combo bundled packs were unheard of in the pre-Reliance Jio times, the talk time prepaid recharges were the norm. However, as the combo plans penetrated the market, the demand for talk time recharges dwindled so much that the private telecom operators swapped almost all of them for new plans except for a few. In case you are wondering whether or not to ditch the prepaid talk time recharges completely, this article will get you out of the dilemma.
Minimum Recharge Packs Not an Attraction
Last, we heard about the talk time recharges, we were talking a look at the re-introduction of the Rs 100 and Rs 500 talk time recharges for Airtel and Vodafone Idea prepaid users. Only a few weeks before that, Vodafone Idea brought back the Rs 50 prepaid recharge pack. With select prepaid talk time recharges making their way back to the portfolios, it seems that the industry had a little rebound with the minimum recharge plans. It is already known that both Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel shed off millions of subscribers due to the introduction of the minimum recharge plans and by discontinuing the prepaid talk time plans, but with the availability of so many combo plans in the market, the question begs to be asked, should subscribers still go for the talk time recharges?
Comparison Between Talk Time Recharges and Combo Plans
To give you a clear picture of the argument which remains for or against the prepaid talk time recharges, we should take a look at the combo offerings and the prepaid talk time recharges in the same price segment. For convenience, we will take the prepaid talk time recharge of Rs 500 and the combo prepaid bundle plan being offered by Airtel for Rs 509.
While the Rs 500 talk time prepaid recharge plan offers only Rs 420.73 talk time for 28 days, the combo plan ships so much more. The Rs 509 plan by Airtel, first of all, comes with 90 days validity, unlimited local, STD and roaming calls, with 100 SMS per day and a daily data allowance of 1.4GB.
Also, all the talk time recharges offered by telcos come with 28 days of outgoing validity, meaning even if you recharge the Rs 5,000 full talk time plan, you'll be able to make outgoing calls for only 28 days. That said, after 28 days, a user will have to perform another recharge of a minimum Rs 24 or Rs 35 to make use of the remaining talk time recharge balance.
Verdict
Even in the lower price range of around Rs 100, the combo plans make much more sense as they offer data, unlimited calls and usually free SMS too, while on the other hand, the talk time recharge plans will require you to keep a check on how much you talk on call, the number of SMS you send and so on. In case you don’t need data, then the telecom operators have even got plenty of voice-based combo offerings which you can opt for. Summing all this up, it can be said that if you are thinking about choosing between talk time prepaid recharges and bundled offerings, then the latter is going to be a much better bang for your buck.
