Airtel, Vodafone, Idea unveil 4G plans to counter Jio

Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telecom operator, has come up with new revamped plans to offer 1 GB of 4G data per day bundled with unlimited calls to counter Reliance Jio Prime plans.

Airtel's Rs345 plan now offers 1GB of 4G data per day along with local and STD voice calls free per month. This 1GB data will be available as 500MB on day time and 500MB on night hours.

The promotional offer is available for 4G handset users who opt for it before 31 March. Customers opting for this plan before the offer expiry period will be able to recharge with the same offer for the next 11 months.

The telco has also modified Rs145 plan, which now offers unlimited Airtel to Airtel calls (local + national) and 2GB of data with a validity period of 28 days.

Vodafone and Idea Cellular, India's second and third-biggest telecom operators, have also come up with new plans with daily data and free unlimited voice calls for prepaid customers to counter Reliance Jio Infocomm's data-rich offers starting 1 April.

Vodafone India's new Rs342 plan gives users unlimited calls and 28 GB of data per month, subject to a limit of 1 GB a day, as per the fair usage policy, according to text messages sent by the company to some subscribers.

A Vodafone spokesperson said the company offers ''various segmented propositions'' that are valid only till 15 March.

Idea, an Aditya Birla Group telco, is offering unlimited voice and 500 MB of data a day for 28 days at Rs348. A company spokeswoman said this offer is for non-data users with 4G handsets.

Jio has offered free voice and data services since it started operations in September, helping the new entrant to net 100 million subscribers in record time.

Starting 1 April, the company's existing users and those coming on board in March will get data benefits under 10 plans listed on its Prime service, while voice calls will continue to be free.

To make its Prime plans more attractive, Jio launched a buy-one-get-one-free offer on Friday for those recharging before 31 March.

Customers recharging with Rs303 will get an add-on of Rs 201 which will give them 5 GB of free data. For Rs499 and above, customers will get a free add-on of Rs301 giving them 10 GB of free data.