With Indian telecom network operators claiming 2016 to be the year of 4G internet, major telecoms are updating their 4G price — both prepaid and postpaid, and gearing up for the competition.
With Reliance Jio 4G being only available to its employees as a trial run and yet to hit the markets, it is believed that once launched it will be an ace player with affordable rates and pan India 4G coverage.
The top telecoms providing 4G are Vodafone India, Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular, depending upon the user’s location. TelecomLead.com has summed up the Prepaid and Postpaid tariff for all of them below:
Airtel
Airtel has different 4G plans in its 15 circles, for varying regions of the country, with the prices being a bit more than those being charged by the other two companies.
In Delhi, Bharti Airtel’s Postpaid plans include myPlan Infinity options, with a 3GB 4G data plan which comes with Unlimited Airtel Calling and Music at Rs 999 to a 15GB 4G data plan at Rs 2,999 which comes complete with Unlimited Local and STD calls, free roaming, and Unlimited Movies and Music download. If the user is looking for a smaller plan, Airtel provides options from 1GB at Rs 300 to 20GB at Rs 3,350, per bill cycle.
Whereas in the Southern side of the country, like Chennai, myPlan Infinity tariff remains the same, but the smaller data plans vary from 1GB at Rs 250 to 20Gb at Rs 3,000, with many more plans when compared to the Northern India offerings.
Also, Airtel 4G Prepaid data packs in the Northern part of the country are costlier than the Southern part of India. 10 GB 4G data plan comes at Rs 1,399 in the North, with the same pack for Rs 1,347 in the South. And, cities in North have plans from 1 GB onwards, while those in the South start from 0.5 GB.
Idea Cellular
Idea Cellular, with 4G network in more places than Vodafone provides high-speed 4G services in the telecom circles of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu & Chennai.
Idea offers its 4G internet plans at 3G data price. Idea Cellular’s Prepaid 1 GB 4G data plan costs Rs 249 and comes with a validity of 28 days. Idea gives out a 10 GB 4G data plan, which is valid for 30 days with a price of Rs 1,346. In case of Idea, slight variations of about Rs 10 are found in the 4G packs provided in different regions of the country, which is not as prominent as the difference seen in the Airtel packs.
Postpaid packs in Idea range from 1 GB at Rs 250 to 10 GB FUP at Rs 1,250. These prices also see a slight change with every region.
Vodafone
Vodafone provides 4G services in five circles of Kerala, Karnataka, Mumbai, Delhi & NCR and Kolkata. It charges the same tariff for its 4G plans as that of the 3G plans.
A customer availing Prepaid services can get 1 GB of 4G data at Rs 255, which will be valid for 28 days. Also, the packs vary up to 20 GB at Rs 2,497, for 28 days.
The postpaid Vodafone 4G customers on RED plan can get 100 percent extra data. There are greater than 1GB packs for postpaid and prepaid customers for select MRPs. Besides, the customers get a complimentary subscription to TV, Movies & Music on VODAFONE PLAY as part of Vodafone 4G for three months. Access to Hungama Play, 100+ Live TV channels, HOOQ, Vodafone Music etc. are the other launch offers. The 4G packs starts from Rs 26 for 75MB (trial pack) to Rs 3297 for 20GB 4G.
Vodafone has also become the first telecoms to international roaming on 4G to its India customers visiting Ireland, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Greece, South Africa, Albania, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, UK, Germany, Romania, Spain and Netherlands.
As of now, Airtel stands out to be the most expensive 4G network amongst the three. Whether Airtel will make it up to the customers with better service and seamless network, as claimed by the company in its advertisements, still remains to be seen. Right now, Idea and Vodafone represent an affordable 4G network option in India, for all circles where these companies provide 4G services.
Vina Krishnan
editor@telecomlead.com