Reliance Jio has come up with three new prepaid plans of Rs 222, Rs 333 and Rs 444 offering 2GB daily data and 1000 off-net minutes with every plan. Right now, the Mukesh Ambani-owned telco is facing a lot of backlash from its own customers for breaking the promise of offering unlimited voice calls for a lifetime. However, Jio is trying its best to defend its decision of charging for outgoing voice calls made to other networks. Jio's new plans are affordably priced and they offer better benefits than similarly priced plans from Airtel and Vodafone Idea. The Rs 222 plan is valid for one month, followed by the Rs 333 and Rs 444 plans for two months and three months respectively. It will be interesting to see how Airtel and Vodafone Idea reacts to these new plans from Reliance Jio.
Reliance Jio Launches 3 New Prepaid Plans: What Do They Offer?
Jio is calling these new plans as All-in-One' plans as they even provide off-net voice minutes to the customers. The All-in-One plans from Reliance Jio come at three prices- Rs 222, Rs 333 and Rs 444, providing validity for one, two and three months, respectively. The Rs 222 prepaid plan from Jio offers 2GB daily data, unlimited Jio-to-Jio voice calling, 1000 off-net voice minutes, 100 SMSes per day and access to Jio apps for 28 days. The Rs 333 and Rs 444 plans also offer the same benefits, but the validity would be 56 and 84 days, respectively.
According to Reliance Jio, these All-in-One plans are cheapest in the market with the benefits offered. For example, if a customer chooses the Rs 199 prepaid plan and Rs 50 IUC Top-Up voucher, then the overall cost comes to Rs 249, but the IUC minutes provided by Jio would be just 656. But the Rs 222 plan offers 1,000 off-net or IUC minutes at an even affordable price, so the new plans are better than the previous plans.
Reliance Jio All-in-One Prepaid Plans: How Do They Fare Against Competitors
Right after Jio introduced the IUC Top-Up vouchers, incumbents mocked the telco on social media websites saying they will continue to provide unlimited voice calls without any charges for off-net calls. So if we compare Jio's Rs 222, Rs 333 and Rs 444 prepaid plans with those of Airtel and Vodafone Idea, the former still has the upper hand.
For example, Airtel and Vodafone Idea does not have any prepaid plans to compete with the newly launched plans of Rs 333 and Rs 444 from Reliance Jio. But both the incumbents are providing Rs 249 and Rs 255 prepaid plans which takes on Jio's Rs 222 All-in-One prepaid plan. As for the benefits, Airtel is providing 2GB daily data, 100 SMSes per day and unlimited voice calling without any FUP limit for 28 days, while Vodafone's Rs 255 plan comes with 2.5GB daily data for the same 28 days validity period.
So in terms of pricing, Jio still has the upper hand, but the plans ship with 1,000 minutes of off-net calling, but Airtel and Vodafone Idea are providing unlimited voice calling without any FUP limit. So if you're a heavy voice calling user, chances are you will end up recharging talk time plans of either Rs 10 or Rs 20 or Rs 50 on top of the Rs 222 prepaid plan. But as mentioned, it will be interesting to see if Airtel and Vodafone Idea slash prices of their prepaid plans to take on the new plans from Jio.
