Airtel Rs 399 plan beats Reliance Jio hands down, becomes cheaper without IUC

In good news for n-Jio customers, both Vodafone and Bharti Airtel removed FUP cap on outgoing calls limit outside ir network with effect from December 6, day Jio rolled out revised prepaid plans costing up to 40 per cent higher than previous offerings.

Airtel has marginally benefitted from its decision to remove interconnect us charge (IUC) that customers have to pay while making outgoing off-net calls from one network to ar. As a result, Airtel Rs 399 plan has a clear advant over Reliance Jio Rs 399 plan.

READ | Jio justifies charging users for off-net calls after Airtel, Vodafone make calls truly free

With removal of limit, Airtel's new Rs 399 plans with 56 days validity became cheaper than that of Reliance Jio plan at same price. Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea has also added Rs 219 plan with same offering as anunced by Bharti Airtel.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea earlier capped outgoing calls to or networks at 1,000 minutes in plan with 28-days validity, 3,000 minutes in 84-day validity and 12,000 in 365 days validity plan. Beyond this limit, customers were required to pay 6 paise per minute for outgoing calls made to or networks.

Airtel Rs 399 vs Jio Rs 399

READ | Airtel lifts FUP cap on voice calls, offers ‘truly’ unlimited calling with new plans

Last week, Airtel anunced three new plans to compete with likes of Reliance Jio. One of plans -- Airtel Rs 399 -- costs exactly same as Jio (Rs 399) and offers more or less same benefits. Since both plans offer 1.5GB daily data for 56 days, users avail a total of 84GB of data throughout plan's validity, with cost per 1GB data of Rs 4.75.

Both Airtel Rs 399 and Jio Rs 399 plans offer daily 100 SMS. While Airtel offers complimentary access to free Hello Tunes, Wynk Music and Xstream Premium, Jio subscribers avail JioPrime membership that includes JioSecurity, JioSaavn, JioCinema, among ors.

biggest differentiator, Airtel Rs 399 is free from FUP capping on off-net calls whereas Jio Rs 399 plan provides users with Jio to n-Jio FUP of 2,000 minutes. se things give Airtel Rs 399 an edge over Jio Rs 399 plan.