Reliance Jio has slashed its prices again, offering unlimited calls at a starting price of Rs 98 per month and increasing data allocation on its existing plans.
The move comes after Bharti Airtel started offering up to 90 GB at a price of Rs 193.
The price of the entry-level pack has been cut from Rs 149 to Rs 98 for voice-only customers.
All 1 GB plans have been converted into 1.5 GB per day plans free of cost.
Similarly, all 1.5 GB/day plans have been upgraded to 2GB/day plans with no increase in price.
The new plans are being called its ‘Republic Day Offer’.
It is not clear whether the people who have already subscribed to these offers will benefit from the extra data allowance, or whether the extra data is restricted to those who recharge from now on.
Interestingly, the company has not touched its 3GB and 5GB daily data plans, and these plans have now become clearly more expensive compared to the 1.5 GB and 2.0 GB plans.
With this change, Jio has again overtaken Airtel as the provider of the cheapest 4G data services within hours of the Bharti Airtel taking the slot.
Under the new plans, Jio’s 2GB per day plans have emerged as the most value for money offers in India.
The cheapest plans within each category remains the 84 day pack, followed by the 91 day pack and the 70 day plan. The most expensive within each category would be the 28 day plans (see chart).
As a result, the most cost-effective plan on Jio right now would be the 84-day validity plan with 2GB per day entitlement, followed by two more 2GB plans.
At the fourth place is Jio’s 84-day plan with 1.5 GB of data per day, priced at Rs 399.
At fifth place is Airtel’s 691 plan (with the use of a 193 top-up) that gives 2.4 GB per day for 90 days.
WARNING
The current spate of price cuts by Jio can be seen as a warning to other operators, particularly Bharti Airtel, not to provoke it further.
The company has stated that it is willing to go to any extent to maintain its status as the most cost-efficient player in the market.
Despite this, Jio has turned a profit even as the mobile businesses of rivals such as Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have started making losses due to the fierce competition.
Idea Cellular has already stated that it is not interested in provoking the Mukesh Ambani company and will always maintain a gap between its prices and those of Jio’s.
However, Airtel has not been willing to accept the proposition, and had unveiled a pack that was giving extra 4G data at just Rs 2.14 per GB.
Under the new tariffs, Jio will be offering data starting at Rs 2.67 per GB.
| Price | GB/day | Days | Total GB | Rs/GB | Premium | ||
| Jio | 448 | 2 | 84 | 168 | 2.67 | 0.00% | |
| Jio | 498 | 2 | 91 | 182 | 2.74 | 2.48% | |
| Jio | 398 | 2 | 70 | 140 | 2.84 | 6.47% | |
| Jio | 399 | 1.5 | 84 | 126 | 3.17 | 18.60% | |
| Airtel | 691 | 2.4 | 90 | 216 | 3.20 | 19.82% | |
| Jio | 449 | 1.5 | 91 | 136.5 | 3.29 | 23.20% | |
| Jio | 349 | 1.5 | 70 | 105 | 3.32 | 24.49% | |
| Jio | 198 | 2 | 28 | 56 | 3.54 | 32.42% | |
| Jio | 149 | 1.5 | 28 | 42 | 3.55 | 32.87% | |
| Airtel | 399 | 1 | 84 | 84 | 4.75 | 77.90% | |
| Vod | 458 | 1 | 84 | 84 | 5.45 | 104.21% | |
| Jio | 799 | 5 | 28 | 140 | 5.71 | 113.75% | |
| Jio | 509 | 3 | 28 | 84 | 6.06 | 126.95% | |
| Id/Vod/Airt | 199 | 1 | 28 | 28 | 7.11 | 166.19% | |
| Jio | 299 | 1.5 | 28 | 42 | 7.12 | 166.63% | |
| Jio | 999 | 60 | 90 | 90 | 11.10 | 315.73% | |