New Delhi: Before the launch of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm’s mobile services, Bharti Airtel and Idea have slashed data charges to prepare themselves for the upcoming tariff battle. Vodafone is also likely to slash data charges in coming days.
Both the telecom operators have increased the quantum of data which a user gets from regular data recharge packs — effectively slashing data price per megabit. The proposed entry of Reliance Jio — funded by the richest man in the country with access to a unparalleled warchest in the telecom sector — is worrying the existing telecom players.
Jio is expected to trigger a price war in the wireless broadband as it will seek to get customers from the existing operators, bringing down data prices further. Jio is expected to mainly concentrate on broadband.
In 2003, the Reliance Group had competely disrupted the mobile sector by slashing handset prices and capturing a huge market share within a few months of its launch.
Airtel on Sunday drop-ped pre-paid data tariffs by increasing data benefits on its pre-paid packs by upto 67 per cent. Idea Cellular, the country’s third largest telecom operator by subscribers, had on Friday slashed mobile internet rates for its prepaid customers by upto 45 per cent.
Bharti Airtel said now its customers will enjoy more value on these existing packs and can add to their mobile internet experience by staying online longer and download more of their favourite content.
“Even the '5 one day 2G data pack benefits have been increased by 48 per cent to 30 MB keeping in mind non-regular/first time users, particularly in rural markets,” it said. Under the revised data benefits, the '655 4G/3G monthly recharge pack will now offer 5 GB data against 3 GB earlier, an increase of 67 per cent.
