To counter Reliance Jio’s affordable recharge plans, Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel and Aditya Birla Group’s Idea Cellular has recently introduced an affordable voice and data-centric first recharge plan, called the “First Recharge Coupon (FRC) 495” for their new prepaid subscribers. The new FRC Rs. 495 Recharge Plan offers the Airtel and Idea cellular subscribers unlimited voice calling (any network Local + STD) and 1GB 3G/4G data per day for 84 days on a recharge of just Rs. 495. Under this “FRC Rs. 495” recharge scheme, Bharti Airtel and Idea prepaid subscribers recharging with Rs. 495 can avail free unlimited voice calling to any network and any region in the country, free 99 SMSes per day (for the Mumbai circle), along with 1GB of 3G or 4G (depending on the circle) mobile data per day for a period of 84 days, totalling 84GB 3G/4G data for the period. The FRC 495 plan is a First Recharge Coupon that means only new subscribers from any corner of India can avail this FRC scheme. Note that, the new first recharge plan is applicable for Airtel and Idea prepaid subscribers only.
All Airtel and Idea prepaid subscribers with 4G-enabled handsets can avail this offer and enjoy the company’s best value voice and data proposition in the said period. Notably, those customer having a non-4G handset, they will get only 1GB internet data for 28 days with the Rs. 495 first recharge plan. Talking about their FUP details, both the telecom operators offer a cap of 300 minutes of outgoing calls within a single day and 1200 minutes of outgoing calls per week. Though the plans give 1GB data per day, after FUP limit, the internet speed will be decreased to 128Kbps.
Needless to say, in the Indian telecom industry, the “disruptive” entry of Reliance Jio is a great momentum behind the new age price war. If you don’t remember, Reliance Jio rolled out its services officially on 1 September 2016, and now it has already crossed over 100 million user base. Reliance Jio created a small wave in the telecom market by introducing its highly affordable voice and data-centric combo plans. Reliance Jio has changed the entire telecom industry with its affordable tariff plans and forced the other telecom giants to reduce their data and calling rates. To counter Reliance Jio’s mouth-watering offer, other leading telecom operators including Vodafone, Airtel, BSNL, Idea Cellular, Aircel have already updated their chart of unlimited data tariff plans. They have been trying really hard to come up with new aggressive plans and strategies to compete against the Reliance Jio, which has captured over 10 crore subscribers in a short period of time. With the launch of their first recharge plans, both the companies are aggressively going to compete against the major telecom company like Reliance Jio, Vodafone India, BSNL and others.
The first recharge plans are valid for Maharashtra, Chennai, and Himachal Pradesh circles. Sadly, we don’t have any words about the All-India availability of these plans. Notably, the price & validity of the Airtel and Idea Cellular’s new Rs. 495 Recharge Plan will be varied depending on telecom circle.
Earlier in this month, Airtel also launched a new tariff plan, called Rs. 199 plan. Under this “Rs. 199 Plan” recharge scheme, Airtel prepaid subscribers recharging with Rs. 199 can avail free unlimited voice calling to any network and any region (Local + STD) in the country, along with 1GB of 2G or 3G or 4G (depending on the circle) mobile data per day for a period of 28 days.
To counter Reliance Jio’s Rs. 149 plan, Idea Cellular also launched a similar kind of recharge plan at Rs. 198. Idea Rs. 198 recharge plan offers its prepaid subscribers unlimited voice calling (all network Local + STD + Roaming calls) and 1GB OF 2G or 3G or 4G (depending on the circle) mobile internet data per day with a validity of 28 days.
