NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio has quietly expanded its data add-on range by quietly rolling out Rs 2,878 and Rs 2,998 plans for its users.
Jio‘s data add-on prepaid plans range comprises Rs 222 (Football World Cup data pack), Rs 181, Rs 241, Rs 301, and Rs 555 which is the only one with subscriptions to the Jio apps suite.
The Rs 2,878 data add-on plan comes with a validity of 365 days, a total of 730GB, or 2GB data per day, whereas the Rs 2,998 also offers 365 days of validity with 912.5GB of data, or 2.5GB data per day.
Additionally, Jio’s range of 4G data vouchers starts from Rs 15 going all the way up to Rs 121 with validity as the existing plan.
Bharti Airtel, on the other hand, has data add-on plans priced from Rs 19 to Rs 148 with various validities. Airtel’s talk-time (top-up vouchers) are also available in the price range of Rs 10 to Rs 5,000, according to the telco’s website.
Third-ranked Vodafone Idea is the only telco currently that is offering over-the-top (OTT) benefits with certain data add-on plans such as the Rs 151 plan with DIsney+ Hotstar subscription of 3 months, or the Rs 108 plan with ad-free music benefit, while the Rs 698 plan comes with 1-year SonyLIV mobile only pack.
Vodafone Idea’s data add-on plans are priced in the range of Rs 19 to Rs 999.
Airtel’s 5G rollout began with eight cities initially – Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Siliguri, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Nagpur, and Chennai after which the network was also launched in Gurugram, Panipat, and Guwahati.
Meanwhile, both Jio and Airtel have also started rolling out their 5G networks based on the standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) architecture, respectively. While Jio is initially focusing on cities for launching networks, Airtel is also focusing on airports. Both telcos have an ambitious goal of extending the 5G coverage across India by 2023-24, whereas Vodafone Idea has not yet specified a timeline for network launch.
Vodafone Idea is also in discussions with the State Bank of India (SBI) for a loan of Rs 15,000-Rs 16,000 crore to immediately meet its 4G capex needs, fund network gear procurement contracts for its pending 5G roll out, and also clear sizeable vendor dues, ET reported on December 1.