After Idea slashed its 3G rates, it is the turn of Reliance Communications.
The firm has tripled its allowance for 3G data plans of upto Rs 408. However, unlike Idea’s offer, RCom’s 3G offer is only valid till end of October (next month.)
Also, unlike Idea, Reliance Communications is not offering cheap rates across all plans, but only for the low to medium usage plans.
For example, whille Idea introduced a 10 GB plan in its new scheme, RCom’s maximum allowance under the new scheme is only 1.5 GB for Rs 408 per month.
It is speculated that the operators are trying out such discount schemes (Idea will re-look at prices on 31 December) to gauge “price elasticity of demand.”
In other words, faced with a low take up, operators are keen to know at what price-point customers are likely to use maximum 3G data services, without bringing down their newly set-up networks.
It is also expected that low prices will ‘lure’ customers to try out 3G data and they can be persuaded to stay on even when the prices are hiked back to the original levels.
Idea, which halved its 3G data prices in many plans over the last few days, was the first to go.
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