Reliance Jio, India’s number one telecom operator, doesn’t like what Vodafone Idea (Vi) is doing with its prepaid plans. Post tariff hikes, Vodafone Idea, is the only operator that is offering the minimum SMS bundled prepaid plan for Rs 179. This isn’t sitting well with Reliance Jio. This is because this restricts the users from sending port out messages. Regardless of the fact that Vodafone Idea is in a desperate situation with respect to new subscribers addition and subscribers market share, this doesn’t sit well with Reliance Jio. Reliance Jio, which is offering the cheapest prepaid plans in the industry, would be looking to add new subscribers. A lot of Vi users might want to port out to Jio after the tariff hikes have kicked in. But with an expensive base SMS prepaid plan, this hurts the chances of Jio to add new subscribers.
Reliance Jio Has Written to TRAI Complaining Vi’s Move
Jio has expressed its concerns to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) expressing the move that Vodafone Idea has played. Vodafone Idea users with lower-end plans can’t port out to either Jio or Airtel. Even the Telecom Watchdog has said that Vodafone Idea’s move is not fair and that users need cheaper SMS bundled prepaid plans so that they always have the power of porting out whenever they want to. Reliance Jio’s cheapest prepaid plan with SMS benefits come for Rs 149. This plan offers users 20GB of data (1GB daily data), 100 SMS/day, and unlimited voice calling for 20 days. There is also a Rs 155 prepaid plan that comes with 28 days of service validity with 2GB of data, 300 SMS, and unlimited voice calling. Reliance Jio wants to touch the 500 million users mark as soon as possible. The telco is working towards the goal, but if Vodafone Idea customers with lower-end plans can’t even port out, that will hurt Jio’s ambitions. TRAI is yet to make a statement on this issue.
