Idea launches Rs 499 prepaid recharge plan to counter Jio Rs 498 plan

Idea has introduced a new prepaid recharge pack worth Rs 499 for its customers to up the game against the incumbents such as Jio, Airtel, Vodafone, and BSNL. The new Idea Rs 499 prepaid recharge offers the customers calling and data benefits for a validity of 82 days. The company has made this recharge pack available under the Unlimited Recharge line of tariffs across many circles.

The Idea Rs 499 prepaid recharge pack gives the customers a total of 164GB 2G/3G/4G data, depending on the circle. The 164GB will be given to the customers in tranches of 2GB data per day. Post consumption, the customers will be charged at 4 paise per 10KB. Idea has also provided 100 SMSes per day to the customers under this plan.

Moreover, the Rs 499 prepaid recharge by Idea provides users with unlimited calls to local and STD numbers. There are also free roaming outgoing calls bundled with the pack. However, Idea has capped the calls to 1,000 per week, so if a user exceeds this threshold, a charge of 1 paisa per second will be levied on the calls. Also, there is a restriction of the calls to be made to 100 unique mobile numbers in seven consecutive days, exhausting which will cost the user 1 paisa per second for the remaining validity of the pack.

Idea’s Rs 499 prepaid recharge comes close on the heels of the Airtel Rs 499 and Jio Rs 498 recharge packs. While the Airtel Rs 499 prepaid recharge offers the customers 2GB 3G/4G data per day for a validity of 82 days, totalling net data amount to 164GB, Jio offers the same amount of data – 2GB per day – for a validity of 91 days. This results in a total of 182GB data to the customers. Both the Airtel Rs 499 and Jio Rs 498 prepaid recharges come bundled with unlimited local, STD, and roaming outgoing calls, in addition to a daily limit of 100 SMSes for the given validity.

IDEA Cellular Limited