Jio Prime membership: How it fares against Airtel, Vodafone 4G plans

Reliance Jio’s free services which includes 1GB data at 4G speeds every day, unlimited voice calls and unlimited text messages will be over after 31 March. However users can continue to avail the same benefits for another year by subscribing to a monthly plan called Jio Prime. Users can activate Jio Prime membership by paying Rs99 initially (one time) and Rs303 every month for a year after which the price of the subscription may be increased. To make the Prime service more lucrative, Reliance Jio will thrown in other benefits such as free access to Reliance Jio’s Music and TV streaming apps.

The Jio Prime membership is not the only subscription plan that a Jio user may subscribe to. Reliance Jio has several other plans for both its prepaid and post paid users starting at Rs19 to Rs1,499. However, these plans will have limited data offering and this is what makes Jio Prime a better proposition. Jio Prime also provides the existing Jio subscribers the incentive to stick with the operator for another year.

Though Bharti Airtel and Vodafone came up with special 4G data plans to counter Reliance Jio, none of their plan still matches the prices of Jio Prime.

What Airtel has to offer

Bharti Airtel has a special prepaid 4G data plan which provides 30GB of 4G data at Rs1,495 for three months. In three months a Jio Prime subscriber will have potentially used up 90GB of data at 4G speeds.

Also Read: Mukesh Ambani unveils new Reliance Jio data plans, including Prime membership

The only plan from Airtel which comes closer to the Jio Prime plan is another special 4G data plan which offers free 4G data to new users only for 12 months. However, this offer closes on 28 February, as per the latest information.

What Vodafone has to offer

Vodafone announced seven new 4G plans for prepaid users last month to take on Reliance Jio. The plan starts at Rs150 for which as user gets 1GB of 4G data for 30 days. The highest data plan is of 35GB, is valid for 30 days and costs Rs1,500. All these plans will be available in all Vodafone circles where they have rolled out their 4G services. The company has another plan for prepaid users which offers unlimited local calls in addition to 3GB of 4G data for Rs449.

Also Read: Reliance Jio to charge for data from 1 April, voice calls free: Mukesh Ambani

The only advantage of going for these Airtel and Vodafone plans is that there is no data cap on them, unlike Jio Prime which reduces the internet speed to 128kbps after the 1GB data per day limit is crossed.