Airtel has announced a new prepaid plan priced at Rs 219, which offers unlimited local, STD and roaming calls along with 1.4 GB of 3G/4G data and 100 free SMS per day. This pack has a validity of 28 days and also offers unlimited hello tunes for its subscribers. This new plan by Airtel rivals Reliance Jio’s Rs 198 prepaid plan. Under the pack, Jio subscribers get 56GB data with for a validity of 28 days and there is a 2GB per day data cap. They will also get unlimited calling, 100 SMS per day and a complimentary subscription to Jio’s suite of apps like JioTV, Jio Cinema and more.
Airtel also has another prepaid plan priced at Rs 199, which offers almost the same benefits as the Rs 219 pack, except the free unlimited hello tunes subscription. Airtel has been upping the ante and recently announced another new prepaid plan for Rs 49, which offers 3GB of data with a validity of one day, although it is only available for select customers. It’s essentially a data booster pack targeted at users who want to stream the ongoing IPL 2018 on their devices.
Airtel is also offering 30GB of free data for subscribers upgrading to a 4G smartphone from a 2G/3G device. Users will get 1GB data per day for 30, which will be added over and above their existing prepaid plan. The offer is also available for postpaid customers and the free data will also get rolled over in their first bill cycle, over the existing plan. Airtel says that the new offer is complementary to Airtel’s ‘Mera Pehla Smartphone’ initiative and its customers can call 51111 for checking if they are eligible for the offer and avail the free data benefits.
Airtel also has the fastest 4G and 3G network along with the fastest overall speed, going by the April 2018 OpenSignal report. As per the report, Airtel delivered average download speeds of 6 Mbps and second was Reliance Jio with 5.1 Mbps overall download speeds. Jio is also said to have maximum 4G coverage and is ahead of the competition by 27 percent as OpenSignal testers were able to get a 4G signal for Jio 96.4 percent of the time, up from 95.6 percent in October.
Speaking of Reliance Jio, the telco could soon foray into the portable computer segment. As per a report, Jio is in talks with Qualcomm to launch a laptop, which comes with integrated cellular connectivity, bundled data, and content offerings as well. It is said to be a Qualcomm powered, ‘Always Connected’ laptop running on Windows 10. Qualcomm demoed the Snapdragon 835 chipset powered Always Connected PCs in December last year at its annual Snapdragon Technology Summit. The cellular laptops boast of delivering over 20 hours of battery life and come with the Qualcomm X16 Gigabit modem for 5G connectivity. Some PC manufacturers like Lenovo, Asus, and HP, have already announced laptops powered by the Snapdragon 835 SoC and besides Jio, Indian OEM Smartron is also working with Qualcomm to launch an Always Connected laptop in the market. You can read more about it here.