Reliance Jio is arguably the best-prepaid service provider right now, thanks to some uber cheap tariff plans. Since its commercial launch of services back in September 2016, Jio has been leading the prepaid tariff plans segment, but what about the postpaid segment. Of course, incumbent telecom operators managed to come close to Jio in the prepaid plans department, but I feel that the company is lagging behind the competition in the postpaid segment. Well, that might sound a bit on the rough side, but Jio is completely missing what a 'postpaid' connection actually means.
Don't take me wrong because Jio is offering pretty decent plans, but they are not enough for customers who're looking for a postpaid connection. Firstly, let's discuss Jio's postpaid plans: they start from Rs 309, and the maximum plan Jio is offering is the Rs 999 plan. On the whole, Jio has five postpaid plans under its belt- Rs 309, Rs 509, Rs 509, Rs 799 and Rs 999. Out of the five plans, three postpaid plans- Rs 309, Rs 509 and Rs 799 offer data benefit on a daily basis like the Jio prepaid plans. And the other two plans come with a fixed amount of data.
The Rs 309 Jio postpaid plan gives 1GB data per day; the Rs 509 plan provides 2GB data per day and lastly, the Rs 799 plan offers data benefit of 3GB data per day. The Rs 409 plan gives 20GB data per billing cycle, while the Rs 999 plan offers 60GB data. Rest of the benefits include unlimited SMS (capped at 100 SMS per day, thanks to our awesome Trai restrictions) and of course unlimited voice calls without any FUP limit. Jio is also providing free access to all the Jio Apps.
So one paragraph is enough to sum up Jio's postpaid plans, whereas other telcos (Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular) are providing a bucket load of additional benefits such as data rollover, rental discount, add-on connections, free third-party content subscriptions (not the standard operator app subscription), international calling benefits, etc. Let' save these for the later part of the article.
Now let's compare these postpaid plans with those of Airtel's myPlan Infinity Postpaid plans. Airtel's postpaid plans start at Rs 399 and goes all the way up to Rs 2,999 with a maximum data benefit of 300GB per month. Unlike Reliance Jio, Airtel is offering a fixed data benefit with all of its postpaid plans, which is sort of the best thing. The idea of a postpaid connection is to provide benefits without any restriction. Am not against the daily data FUP plans, but they just don't justify the meaning of a postpaid connection.
Let's leave that daily limit postpaid plans and look at those two plans of Rs 409 and Rs 999 which offers a fixed amount of data per billing cycle. The Rs 409 plan provides a user with 20GB of data, while the Rs 999 one gives 60GB of data. Airtel's Rs 399 plan also gives 20GB of data, and the country's leading telecom operator is providing 60GB of data per month with its Rs 799 postpaid plan itself. As you can see, Airtel clearly has the edge over Jio.
Now, let's consider the rental discount scheme recently implemented by Airtel. With the Rs 399 plan, Airtel is providing Rs 50 discount for all the subscribers (of course you need to contact customer support team to get it activated) and 20% discount of up to Rs 100 for the Rs 799 plan. Essentially, Airtel is offering 20GB data at Rs 349 (excluding taxes) and 60GB data at Rs 699 (again excluding taxes). Airtel is a clear cut winner here.
But you might ask me: why don't we compare Airtel Rs 799 plan with Jio's Rs 799 plan. The Rs 799 postpaid plan of Jio gives 3GB data per day for 30 days, which takes the overall data benefit to 90GB. Sounds excellent, right? But what if you want to consume more than 3GB data per day? Well, here comes the real deal. Reliance Jio is not offering any data add-on packs like it's offering to the prepaid subscribers, at least as per the company's website. So if you're done with 3GB data per day, then you have to get through the entire day without any data. That's not the real meaning of a postpaid connection. Of course, it's offering after FUP speed of 64 Kbps, but do you really care about it?
That said, Reliance Jio's postpaid tariff plans don't stand a chance against Airtel's or Vodafone's or Idea Cellular's postpaid plans. Now let's talk about those additional benefits where Jio is way behind the competition.
Firstly, the data rollover scheme. Last year, Airtel implemented the postpaid data rollover scheme allowing users to store unused data of up to 500GB (initially it was 200GB) in their account. And trust me, the data rollover scheme will go as the best feature implemented by Airtel till date. And the same is followed by other operators Vodafone and Idea Cellular.
Secondly, Airtel implemented the postpaid add-on connection scheme, allowing users to add a child number to share the benefits at no additional cost. For example, Airtel's Rs 799 plan gives one free add-on connection option. If you're on the Rs 799 postpaid plan, then you can add one Airtel postpaid customer for free to your account and share the benefits with that number too.
Thirdly, those third-party content subscriptions of Amazon Prime Video and Netflix from Airtel and Vodafone. You will raise a question now: what about JioCinema? Well, it's great, but Netflix's content is way bigger than that of Jio's. Lastly, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are offering free international voice calling minutes to some countries with their premium postpaid plans.
Another massive letdown for Jio is the lack of premium postpaid plans. The top three telcos are offering plans starting at Rs 389 to Rs 2,999 for the premium plan with incredible data benefit. The Rs 2,999 postpaid plan from Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular gives 300GB data per billing cycle, which Jio is lacking of.
So there you have it. These are the things which highlight Jio's weakness in the postpaid segment. But again, I strongly believe that Jio is aware of this issue and am pretty interested to see Jio's postpaid subscriber base. The Mukesh Ambani-led telco should act up fast and solve this issue. A postpaid user like me always looks for a postpaid connection and never look for a prepaid connection, no matter whatever benefits being offered in the prepaid segment. And there are a lot of people who agree with me in this regard.
As I stated, I would really love to see how many postpaid subscribers Jio currently has. But let's keep that aside and see how many Jio postpaid subscribers are reading this post. Comment down below if you're a Jio postpaid user.
