Idea Cellular
Idea CellularREUTERS

Aditya Birla-backed telecom operator Idea Cellular is crafting the perfect response to Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Mittal's disruptive moves in the Indian telecom industry.

Airtel and Reliance Jio have outperformed every other telco in India with their unlimited calls and 4G data offers. But the competition is going to get tough. According to a Moneycontrol report on Thursday, sources have revealed that Idea Cellular is going to offer unlimited free data to topple Jio and Airtel's data plans.

Read: Reliance Jio vs Airtel vs Others: Who's offering best free data, voice call deals in India

Reliance Jio's Happy New Year offer gives unlimited free 4G data for users till March 31, while Airtel recently announced new promotional offers with free 4G data till December 2017. Idea Cellular will now come up with new 4G data packs with an extended validity of up to 1.5 years.

It's not known whether the calls will be made free for Idea users in the new plan, but sources said the telco would go one step further and make incoming calls free for international roaming on a down payment and also introduce loyalty plans for its customers.

Idea Cellular ranks third in the country's telecom ranking as Airtel and Vodafone take the number one and number two spots, respectively. As of November, Idea Cellular was short of just 15.1 million users to beat Vodafone and take the second spot. The telco's third position was backed by 187.68 million users, while Vodafone led with 202.79 million users. Airtel held a strong lead over its rivals with 263.35 million subscribers as of November.

If we exclude Reliance Jio, which is poised to reach 100 million users by March 2017, Idea scored the highest number of users in November. If the rumoured plan comes into effect, Idea will certainly gain an edge over Vodafone, which is yet to make a bold move like Jio and Airtel in the Indian market.

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