Vodafone, Idea, and Airtel launch offers to take on Reliance Jio

The counter-attack continues. Refusing to give up on the battle against the powerful Reliance Jio, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea are back with a slew of new offers.

As an onslaught to the recently introduced Jio Prime Membership, the established telecom networks have introduced offers to retain its subscriber base.

Vodafone has announced a Rs 346 plan which includes free unlimited calling and SMS to any network, along with free domestic roaming. Like Jio's plan, Vodafone also limits the daily 4G usage to 1GB and gives users 56GB with a validity of 56 days. The Offer is available only until March 15.

Airtel has also come up with Rs 349 plan which is available only to the prepaid users, with total 28GB data for 28 days – with FUP of 1GB per day. However, there are prerequisite conditions, the 1GB FUP per day is further divided into two — 500 MB of the 1GB data can be used only from 3 am to 5 am. For the rest of the day, users get only 500 MB. The users also get free unlimited domestic calls, no roaming charges and unlimited messages.

On the other hand, Idea is offering 14GB data at a recharge of Rs 345, along with unlimited calls and messages. Given the amount of data offered is less, its daily FUP is also less. It offers 500MB per day of data to subscribers of this plan.

It seems like the incumbent telecom operators will fight until they are bleeding because there is no other way but to brace and hit back. Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal said, "Tariffs that they (Jio) have announced are still very aggressive, which means you got to respond. You got to do more packages...you have to throw in more data. All those things need to be done...But yes, still to our mind, it is the pricing which is unsustainable."

Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, all three reported a sharp sequential fall in their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in the third quarter. Airtel’s reported a 8 percent low AGR in the quarter ended December to Rs 11,500 crore, while Vodafone India and Idea’s fell by 5.1 percent and 4.9 percent to Rs 8,300 crore and Rs 7,000 crore, respectively.