R-Com takes on Reliance Jio, offers unlimited voice plan for Rs149 a month

New Delhi: In an attempt to counter Reliance Jio’s unlimited free voice, Reliance Communication on Tuesday announced unlimited voice plan at Rs.149 for all its customers. The plan also includes 300 MB of data usage, indicating that the company is adopting bundling of voice and data.

“The ‘149 Unlimited’ Plan, available across the 2G, 3G and 4G technology platforms, is targeted at incentivizing 2G, 3G and 4G handset-owners across India to move to the R-Com network. Regardless of the type of feature phone or smartphone used, customers will get unlimited voice calling, including STD calls, to any phone on any network in India—plus 300 MB of data access on RCOM’s best-in-class 2G, 3G & 4G networks,” R-Com said in a statement.

There has been an upheaval in the Indian telecom sector since the commercial launch of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd as the company is offering free voice and data till 31 December to all its subscribers. It has also promised cheap tariff plans after the welcome period offer. The company has set a target to cover 90% of the population by March 2017 and acquire 100 million subscribers in “shortest possible time. The tariff plans range from Rs.149 to Rs.4,999 per month, with as much as 75GB data included in the top plan.

Jio also guarantees free domestic voice calls to any network across the country with no charge or deduction of data even after 1 January 2017.

“Our Unlimited Plan will see millions of Indians benefit, and help RCOM ramp up its customer base and engage with higher-value customers and greater ARPUs. Our new pioneering yet simple Unlimited Plan has the potential to trigger a paradigm shift in the way Indians recharge their mobile phones, creating a significant shift in the telecom market—as it moves away from the ‘Unit Rate’ charging regime to a ‘Single Recharge and Unlimited Usage’ regime,” Gurdeep Singh, co- chief executive, R-Com, said.

Incumbents in the telecom sector, including Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular, have been revising tariff plans and offering lucrative benefits with aggressive bundling of voice and data since the launch of Reliance Jio in attempts to retain market share.

Gopal Vittal, chief executive, Bharti Airtel, had earlier this month said that Indian market is moving towards bundling like Western markets, where voice and data content is packaged together.

Reliance Group companies have sued HT Media Ltd, Mint’s publisher, and nine others in the Bombay high court over a 2 October 2014 front-page story that they have disputed. HT Media is contesting the case.