Airtel has discontinued the popular Rs 49-prepaid plan, replacing it with a Rs 79-option, the company has announced. The Bharti Airtel-owned telecom service provider has been revising its product portfolio over the last couple of weeks and announced the discontinuation of the Rs 49 plan on Wednesday. The new plan will be available across India from Thursday.
“Airtel has discontinued its Rs 49 entry level Prepaid recharge. The company’s prepaid packs will now start from the Rs 79 smart recharge and offer up to four times more outgoing minutes of usage to customers along with double data,” the company said in a statement.
“This change is in line with the company’s focus on offering superior connectivity solutions.”
The Rs 49 prepaid plan, the company’s cheapest, had a validity of 28 days and provided users with a talktime of Rs 38.52 and 100MB data. The Rs 79 prepaid option comes with the same 28-day validity period and will include talktime of Rs 64, STD and local calls at 1 paisa per second, outgoing calls of 106 minutes, and 200 MB data. The Rs 49 recharge was offered for free when India was witnessing a spurt in Covid-19 cases in May. It was believed to benefit 5.5 crore users in the low-income group.
Last week, the country’s second largest telecom service provider by users revised postpaid plans for both corporate and retail customers, discontinuing the Rs 749 family plan. The Rs 999 plan will now be the lowest postpaid plan for families.
Vodafone Idea followed Airtel in revising its postpaid plans for corporate and retail customers. Vodafone Idea also has a Rs 49 prepaid option with the same 28-day validity and 100 MB data. However, the talktime for the Vodafone Idea is slightly lower at Rs 38. The beleaguered telecom operator, however, is likely to follow in the footsteps of Airtel and revise the plan shortly.
