Even as Reliance Jio continues its slow move towards ‘full pricing’ of its services, rival Idea Cellular has taken a step towards increasing promotional 4G pack prices across its tariff cards.
While the operator was offering 1GB data per day for 84 days at around Rs 400 in key 4G states, it has now increased the price of the pack by 25% to around Rs 500.
In Kerala, for example, the pack is now on offer at Rs 505.
The move seems to be aimed at keeping itself slightly higher priced compared to Reliance Jio, while leaving space for Jio to continue to raise prices while remaining India’s most efficient 4G provider.
Jio has, at the beginning, promised that it would offer 20% more data compared to any of its rivals.
This had become an issue as rivals such as Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel had slashed their prices to match that of the new entrant.
Unless rivals increase prices first, the Ambani firm will find it difficult to raise its own tariffs — something that the rivals also want.
With the increase in price to Rs 500, Idea’s 84-day pack is now 25% more expensive than Jio’s.
However, there seems to be no such movement from other players like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.
NEW 4G OFFERS
Besides the above, the Aditya Birla company also introduced a couple of other plans targeted exclusively at 4G users.
The first one is priced at around Rs 400, and gives the same benefit as Jio’s Rs 309 pack — 1 GB per day for 56 days.
As a result, the pack is around 30% more expensive compared to Jio’s.
In addition to these 400- and 500-rupee packs, the company is also reported to have launched a 700-rupee pack offering 1.5 GB of 3G or 4G data per day for 84 days.
Jio, at present, does not have a comparable plan to the 700-rupee offer, as all its high-capacity daily plans have a validity of 56 days only.
The company, however, does offer 2 GB per day for around Rs 500 for 56 days, implying a cost of Rs 750 for 84 days.
Unlike Jio, the Aditya Birla company does not reveal its new plans and packs to all customers. These are offered only in certain states, and only to customers who have purchased 4G handsets.
The company is learnt to be using software to identify customers who are keeping their Idea SIMs on the 2G slot of a 4G device. Such customers are given attractive offers to lure them to shift their 4G use to Idea’s network.