While existing telcos Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and BSNL were combating Reliance Jio with their best offers, state-run MTNL remained a silent spectator to the chaos in the industry. MTNL's silence was mistaken for having no tricks up its sleeve – until now.
It looks like MTNL was waiting for the right moment before striking, and it looks like it might just do the trick. Just a day before Jio's tariffs go live, MTNL announced its best offer so far. On April 1, the new MTNL plan goes live for customers living in Mumbai and Delhi, which might be worth considering.
MTNL launched a new plan for customers with a monthly rental of Rs. 319, which offers 2GB 3G data per day and unlimited calling within MTNL network. If you noticed, there are more than one limitations in MTNL's offer as compared to Jio. Firstly, it is available in just two cities, the data offered in the bundle in 3G and not 4G LTE, and unlimited calling is only within MTNL's network.
In an attempt to make this offer more appealing to users, MTNL is giving 25 minutes of free calls to other networks every day. But the offer is only valid for 90 days, unlike Jio, which is extending its Prime Membership offer for up to 12 months.
It is clear that Reliance Jio's offer is far better than any of what other telcos are offering right now. Jio users can become a Prime member by paying just Rs. 99 as a one-time fee and then recharge for Rs. 303 for 1GB data per day and unlimited calls. Jio has other tariffs as well to suit users' needs.
Airtel comes close to what Jio is offering. With a monthly rental of Rs. 345, users get 28GB data a month with unlimited calls. But the data usage is limited to 500MB during the day and 500MB during the night. In both Jio and Airtel, users must recharge before April 1 to get the benefits for a whole year.
