Tech Hive Quest

As Reliance Jio extended its free services offer for customers till March 31, 2017, other telecom operators like Airtel, Idea, and Aircel have announced free voice calling packs for their prepaid customers. These free voice call packs are being bundled with some data as well. So here’s a look at the offers that have been announced:

Airtel

Airtel prepaid users can go for a Rs 345 recharge, and then they will be able to make unlimited calls to any network. Additionally, they will get 1GB of 4G data for 28 days with this pack.
For those who don’t want to spend Rs 345, there’s a smaller pack as well that comes with the free voice calling. The Rs 145 recharge pack offers unlimited free voice calls to any network along with 300MB 4G data free for 28 days.

Aircel

Aircel has gone a step ahead and is offering free voice calls for three months (90 days) along with unlimited data for a month bundled in the same plan. The prepaid plan called FRC148 has a total validity of 90 days for calls and one month on the data side.

Customers will get free Aircel to Aircel (Local and STD) calling and also free calling on Aircel to other networks as well. However, in the Aircel to other networks, there is a limit of 15,000 seconds per month, which translated to roughly 250 minutes free per month, for the total duration of the three month period. The data deal on this plan offers unlimited 2G data for one month with 500 MB FUP per day. The user has to first get a recharge of Rs 149 to avail this offer.

Idea Cellular

Idea Cellular launched two prepaid packs for customers with unlimited local and STD voice calling, along with data benefits. These are priced at Rs 148 and Rs 348 respectively.

The Rs 148 recharge gives customers free Local and STD Idea-to-Idea calls across India and 50MB of data. Customers with 4G phones have an advantage and get 300 MB data.

However, the more expensive Rs 348 recharge offers free Local and STD calls across all networks. But the data limit remains 50MB of data for those with a regular phone; those with a 4G device get 1 GB data. Both packs are valid for 28 days.

Vodafone Double Data 

It looks like Vodafone is concentrating on the data aspect and offering customers more 4G data at earlier rates. Vodafone has started offering double 4G data usage for packs priced  Rs 255 and above; it has reduced prices by 50 per cent.

“All Vodafone 4G pre-paid customers can now avail ‘Double Data’ benefits on existing market packs and will enable Vodafone customers to enjoy an enhanced mobile internet experience. This offer is applicable on all 4G market packs starting from Rs 255,” Vodafone said in a statement.

For now, customers get 2 GB worth 4G data on the Rs 255 plan instead of 1GB that was offered earlier. Also the Rs 459 plan now has 6 GB of 4G data, while the Rs 559 plan comes with 8GB data. The Rs 999 plan offers 20 GB data and Rs 1999 offers plan 40 GB. All of these prepaid plans will be valid for 28 days. On the data front, Vodafone appears to have one of the strongest offerings for its prepaid customers.

Reliance Jio

Of course, the reason why all these telecom players are slashing data and voice calls across the country is due to Reliance Jio’s entry in the market. Reliance Jio’s free voice calls, data and video calling offer has been extended to March 2017; Jio SIM users don’t have to worry about tariffs till this time period. However, the daily FUP on Jio has been set to 1GB per day from the earlier 4GB per day. This limit comes into effect on January 1, 2017, and once a user exhausts this limit, the speed will be reduced to 128KBps