The telecom companies have started offering the free calling plans to take on Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio.
As Reliance Jio has extended its free services till March 31, 2017, the other telecom companies like Idea, Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone, and BSNL are announcing free voice calling plans for their prepaid customers.
Bharati Airtel which is the biggest mobile operator in India and Idea Cellular have started offering the free unlimited voice calling services to any network on prepaid packs of Rs 345 and Rs348 respectively. In addition, the customers will also get 1GB of 4G data with the pack. There is also economical packs from both companies- Airtel offers free voice calls and 300MB 4G data free at Rs 145 for 28 days, whereas the Idea customers will have to pay Rs 148 for free local and STD Idea-to-Idea call pan India with 50MB of data. The customers with 4G mobiles will get the advantage of 300MB data.
The state-owned BSNL also has its plan to tackle the Jio offers. BSNL is offering a free voice to all networks and its packs start from Rs 149. The offers will be commencing from New Year and it will be open for all its customers including 2G, 3G, and 4G. However, for using the Reliance Jio services, one requires having a 4G VoLTE mobile to use free voice calling.
On the other hand, Vodafone is offering double 4G data for its customers for packs priced Rs 255 and above. The company has reduced the prices by 50 percent. With this offer, the users will get 2GB of 4G Data at a price of 1GB data i.e. Rs 255.
Vodafone also offers the unlimited free voice calling to its prepaid customers. There are two packs- Rs 144-Rs 149 (depending on the customer’s circle) offers unlimited voice calls to Vodafone customers across the country along with 50MB data, while the another pack is priced at Rs 344-Rs 349 (depending on the customer’s circle) which offers unlimited free voice calls to all networks with 50MB data.
Aircel introduced the free voice call pack which is valid for 90 days (3 months) bundled with the unlimited data for a month. The prepaid plan is called as FRC148. The pack will include free Aircel-to-Aircel calling on Local and STD. The pack also includes 15,000 seconds of Aircel to other network voice calling per month. The plan is currently launched in Delhi and it is expected to get released across the country.
The Reliance Jio is currently offering unlimited voice calls, SMS, and data for its customers. Also, no roaming charges are applicable on these services. However, the Airtel and Idea customers will be charged on roaming.
Even the cheapest plan of Jio includes unlimited voice call to all networks free of cost and even on roaming. The Jio basic plan will be priced at Rs 149 which will allow the free voice calling with bundled data of 300MB. Many latest mobiles are been offered with Jio Offer these days.
Also keep in mind that the commercial Jio services are yet to be started as it will begin from April 1, 2017. Before this happens, the Jio customers will enjoy the Jio Welcome offer till December 2016 and later Jio Happy New Year Offer from January 1, 2017, to March 31, 2017.
