Irrespective of how much telcos argue over the “unrealistic” pricing enforced by Jio, there is no denying that the most profitable business model in India is selling services at the cheapest price. And in spite of the criticism, operators cannot escape this and have to comply in order to so they do not have to succumb to the competition.
Telenor, Aircel, Reliance Communications, Tata Docomo are several of the names lost to this pressure and to avoid such a fate, Idea Cellular has released a plan priced at ₹998 for users with high demand for data. It bundles 5GB data per day along with unlimited calling and 100 SMSes per day. These benefits are valid for a duration of 28 days.
Idea subscribers who recharge with ₹998 plan will be able to access 4G data wherever it is available. At other times, users will get 2G signals as 3G is not supported in the plan. The plan is only valid for users in Odisha where Idea’s 4G network is available in major cities. One thing that must be noted is that Idea limits unlimited calling to 250 minutes daily and 1,000 minutes per week.
The plan is intended to take on Jio’s ₹799 plan which offers the same benefits. Aside from 5GB daily data, you also get truly unlimited calling with Jio. So, clearly with a price difference of ₹199, Idea doesn’t get anywhere close to Jio in terms of value for money. Benefits offered by Jio also include JioTV using which subscribers get access to 300+ live TV channels for free.
Meanwhile, Vodafone offers 4.5GB data per day for ₹799 that is paired with unlimited calling and free roaming benefits.
Idea also announced three plans recently that offer 70 days of validity. The pricing for these plans lies between ₹697 and ₹1,197 while the data benefits range from 1.4GB to 2.5GB 4G/3G data for a duration of 70 days.
