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After Airtel, Vodafone & Idea slash 3G prices

Less than a week ago, Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom firm, slashed the prices of its 3G data plans (both for prepaid and post-paid subscribers) and now telco’s Vodafone and Idea have followed suit and done the same.

However, Airtel has reduced its 3G tariffs for good while Idea and Vodafone are offering the double benefits as limited time offers. Although Vodafone hasn’t specified the date when its offer will end, for Idea, it’s March 31, 2013.

Here’s a look at the 3G tariff plans the telco’s are offering:

Vodafone

The company is also offering 3G plans bundled with free SMSes and calling minutes and a 3G plan especially designed for post-paid BlackBerry users.

Idea

Like Vodafone, the company is also offering 3G plans bundled with free SMSes and calling minutes. It is also offering ‘Rate Cutter’ plans, which don’t offer free data usage but ensures a pay-as-you-go package.

Airtel

Here’s a comparison with what Airtel is offering.

Apart from these, the telco has also introduced a new offering called Smartbytes, which allows subscribers to top up with available 3G plans once they have used up their free usage. But there is no validity provided with these packs, which means just like a mobile top-up, subscribers will have to utilise the data benefit before their monthly plan cycles end.

While the main reason behind Airtel’s 3G tariff slash could be the launch of its 4G services in the country, Vodafone and Idea must have done the same in a bid to stay in the competition. But whatever be the reason, subscribers like us are bound to benefit the most. Let the price war begin!

5 Comments

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AvB May 24, 2012 4:43

The losers at Vodafone have introduced limited time period offers on data usage plans without any facility to check the data usage beyond the allowed limit in the original plan. For example, if you subscribe to a 500MB data plan, then temporarily you will get up to 1GB of data free. However, once you have consumed your initial 500MB of data, there is no way of checking how much data you have consumed beyond that until the bill is generated.

So chances are that you will consume over 1GB of data and end up paying them much more at @2p/10kb.

Manish May 24, 2012 12:44

All operators are trying to fool subscribers. They have changed the base price from 10p to 3p but it is implemented only for ‘pay as you use’ or when the data pack subscribed is exhausted. But if you see the prices for data packs they are the same. So it doesn’t save money for anybody. Vodafone was charging Rs 850 for 3GB earlier and even now it is the same. So where is the saving.

Anand Rai May 24, 2012 17:50

Hi Manish,

It’s true that the company is still offering 3GB for Rs 850, but if you look closely, they have doubled the validity of the plan from 30 days to 60 days now. It is the same for the Rs 1,250 plan.

Anand Rai May 24, 2012 17:53

A very valid point on the ‘facility to check the data usage’, it is true that Vodafone does not provide any help in that area. And unlike the account balance, which can be checked at any given time by sending a SMS or calling the telco’s toll free number, there is no such facility for checking the data usage.

Vodafone India May 25, 2012 12:35

Hello Anand,

Please send us your number at http://bit.ly/KJMo2N so that we may address your concern better.

Regards,
Vodafone Customer Care

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