Airtel hits back at Reliance Jio with New 145 offer
Airtel’s chief Sunil Bharti Mittal recently acknowledged the tough competition in the telecom sector induced by Reliance Jio. He went on to say that Airtel will challenge every Jio offer with a similar Airtel offer.
The company was quick to follow up its promises. Airtel launched a new data scheme which challenges Jio’s low rates per GB and that too, with an option of smaller packages.
Jio’s Rs 303 offer, so far, was uncontested by any other telecom operator in the country. However, Airtel’s new offer does take on competition, rather aggressively. The new Rs 145 data pack can get you a good 14GB of data for nearly half a month. This sets a direct comparison between this offer and Jio’s 1GB per day offer.
For Rs 345 an Airtel user will get 1GB data which can be extended to 4GB (1GB regular pack benefit and 3GB free data). Apart from that, the pack offers free calls to any network in the country.
With the Rs 145 pack you’ll get free local plus STD Airtel to Airtel mobile calls along with 14GB of 4G data.
Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal, in a conference at MWC, Barcelona, defended the drastic reduction in tariff-prices. He said, “Tariffs that they (Jio) have announced are still very aggressive, which means you got to respond. You got to do more packages… you have to throw in more data. All those things need to be done.”
The fight between new entrant Reliance Jio and the incumbent telecos could become more intense in the days ahead as market leader Bharti Airtel chief Sunil Mittal announced that his firm would make roaming free.