Vodafone Idea (Vi) has reduced the validity of Rs 99 and the Rs 128 prepaid plans. The telco has definitely done this to boost its average revenue per user (ARPU) figure. Vi has been struggling to get its ARPU up. There was no QoQ growth in the ARPU of the telco in Q4 FY23. It remained at Rs 135, the same as the previous quarter. It is not a good sign for Vi as it tries to raise funds from the market. Reducing the validity of the Rs 99 and the Rs 128 plans is going to help Vi quite a bit.
The telco has a lot of low-paying customers, and this move would mean that everyone who was recharging with the Rs 99 plan (potentially all the 2G customers) will now have to recharge more frequently. It would scale the revenues of Vi higher and can also lead to a rise in the ARPU. Let’s check out the new validities of the Rs 99 and the Rs 128 prepaid plans. Note that these changes are currently only visible in the telecom circle of Mumbai. In case you find the change in your respective circle as well, do let us know in the comments.
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Vodafone Idea Rs 99 Plan (New Benefits)
The older validity of the Rs 99 plan was 28 days. But that has been brought down to 15 days now. This means that the daily cost of the plan has come up from Rs 3.53 to Rs 6.6. The other benefits of the plan remain the same. You get 200MB of data, Rs 99 worth of talktime, and no SMS (but the standard tariff for SMS to 1900 for porting out).
Vodafone Idea Rs 128 Plan (New Benefits)
The validity of the Rs 128 plan has been cut down from 28 days to 18 days in Mumbai. This means the daily usage cost of this plan has gone up from Rs 4.57 to Rs 7.11. The benefits remain the same, though. Users get 10 Local On-net Night Minutes + All Local/National Calls at 2.5 paise/sec. Night minutes benefit is available from 11 PM to 6 AM.
Since this change only seems visible in Mumbai, it is very likely that Vi is testing the waters by seeing the customer reaction to it. This is what Airtel also did when it wanted to increase the base tariff from Rs 99 to Rs 155. Airtel tested it by introducing the change in just two circles first and assessing the customer reaction to it.
Very soon, the change can be implemented by Vi in other circles as well. But this is not the only thing that has happened.
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Vi Removes Affordable Plans from Mumbai Circle
Apart from reducing the validity of the Rs 99 and the Rs 128 plans, Vi has also removed some of the older plans which fell in the affordable category. From the validity section, the Rs 107, Rs 111, and Rs 279 plans have been removed. At the same time, Vi has also removed the Rs 137 and Rs 141 STVs (Special Tariff Vouchers).
Again, note that these changes are only visible to users in Mumbai. For the remaining circles, the old plans are still there, and the validity of the Rs 99 and Rs 128 plans also remain the same.
