The Indian telecom market is flooded with a series of lucrative prepaid plans trying to woo subscribers in unique ways. While Reliance Jio and Airtel are engaged in a fierce battle to win more users, Vodafone Idea is also dictating new terms that shape the competition between telcos. In one such attempt, Vodafone Idea launched a new prepaid plan that benefits users with demand for high data.
Vodafone Idea launched Rs 129 prepaid plan with lucrative data benefits. This includes unlimited local and STD calls, 100 SMS per day and 1.5GB data per day for 28 days. The Rs 129 prepaid plan trumps several Vodafone plans, including Rs 119, which gives 1GB data with unlimited calls for 28 days, and Rs 169 that offers 1GB daily data with unlimited calls for a month.
But the bigger question is whether Vodafone Idea's new Rs 129 plan is better than what Reliance Jio and Airtel offer at the moment. There are various prepaid plans from each telco that offer different benefits. The plans that compare with Vodafone's latest offer are priced at Rs 199 from Airtel and Rs 98 from Jio.
The best monthly data-centric plan comes from Reliance Jio, which gives 2GB data per day alongside unlimited local and STD calls, access to Jio apps and 300 SMS for 28 days. While Vodafone Idea's Rs 129 offer comes second in terms of value-for-money, Airtel's Rs 199 appears a bit overpriced to be competing in this segment.
Airtel also offers 1.5GB data per day along with unlimited local and STD calls and 100 SMS per day for Rs 199. The benefits are the same as Vodafone Idea's Rs 129 plan, but the telco charges Rs 70 extra. We could bring into question the quality of the service from each telco and Airtel could win the argument, but it faces a stiff challenge from Reliance Jio, which is at par in terms of service and the prepaid tariff is half of what Airtel is charging.
This is just one plan comparison, and each telco has its own best deals on various other offers. Vodafone recently revised its Rs 509 plan to offer 1.5GB data per day with unlimited calls, access to Vodafone Play and 100 SMS per day for 90 days. Airtel, Reliance Jio and BSNL have similar tariffs to compete against Vodafone.
Given the level of competition between telcos, tariffs shouldn't be the deciding factor while choosing your operator. Users must consider the quality of service, be it in terms of data speed or connectivity and quality of voice calls.
