Airtel extends 10 GB free data offer to counter Jio

Bharti Airtel, India's largest telecom operator, has extended its free extra 10 GB data offer for three months for postpaid customers to counter competition from Reliance Jio's free services.

The free extra 10 GB data offer or Airtel 'Data Surprise Offer' was initially available for postpaid subscribers till 13 April. The same offer has now been extended till 30 April, 2017 for the subscribers who failed to avail of it last time.

Under the 'Data Surprise Offer', postpaid subscribers who came to Airtel network before 28 February are eligible to get extra 10 GB high-speed 4G data at no extra cost, in addition to the existing data offered under different postpaid plans.

The offer can be availed of using My Airtel app.

Recently, the company also announced new pre-paid plan to customers where they can avail 70 gigabyte (GB) plus unlimited local and subscriber trunk dialling (STD) calls for Rs399.

The above plan is also available for Rs244 for users with a 4G smartphone and subscriber identity module (SIM) card.

Here are the details of the new plans being offered:

Rs399 plan: Under this pack, users will get 1 GB data per day only if they have a 4G smartphone and SIM card. The free calls incentive comes with a 3,000 minutes cap for a 70-day period. When the minutes gets exhausted, users will be charged Rs 0.10 a minute. For Airtel-Airtel calls, the limit is 300 minutes per day, but 1,200 minutes is the maximum consumption per week.

Rs 345 plan: From 1 GB data per day, Airtel is now offering 2 GB data for the same amount. Similar to the Rs 399 plan, users get the same free calls benefit with a cap. Where earlier, users were restricted to 500 megabyte (MB) from 12am-6pm and the other 500 MB available for rest of the day, the offer now holds no such limitation.

Rs244 plan: For 4G smartphone and 4G SIM card users, one can get 1 GB date per day for 70 days under fair usage policy.  Although, the offer claims to provide unlimited free STD and local calls, uers get 1,200 minutes on calls made to other networks and 300 minutes of free Airtel to Airtel. Upon full consumption of the free minutes, users will be charged Rs 0.10 per minute.

The same will be effective after 15 April as the new recharge plan is still under processing. If one recharges prior to that, it will get activated after Saturday. These offers come as the deadline for Reliance Jio's subscription to its Jio Summer Surprise and Dhan Dhana Dhan for 3 months with a Rs309 or Rs509 recharge is nearing.

The deadline for the new Airtel plan, only available for eligible customers, is June-end 2017. One needs to login to Airtel's official website or MyAirtel app to confirm eligibility.