Reliance Jio's Summer Surprise offers to end: But you can still get the best deals
Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio may have been great news for customers, but it created plenty of troubles in the telecom industry. The company has caused great damage to existing players with its cut-throat pricing strategy.
By handing out freebies to win over customers, it caught the competition by surprise, resulting in heavy losses for established players such as Bhati Airtel, Vodafone and Idea.
As Jio's "sustained predatory pricing" bled the competition dry – with telecom operators Bharti Airtel reporting lowest quarterly earnings in four years as its net earnings fell 72 per cent in January-March – consumers across the country continued to enjoy the free services and promotional offers rolled out by the telecom operator. However, as is the case with all good things, Jio's promotional offers finally look to be coming to an end.
Reliance Jio's "Summer Surprise" offer will come to an end this month for most users, unless of course Mr Ambani has more surprises for consumers. But with the chances of such an announcement very bleak, here's what you can do after Reliance Jio finally draws the curtain on its promotional offers.
1) After enjoying free services till March 31 – six months after the company launched operations in September – Jio launched its "Summer Surprise" offer in April which gave users another three months of free services if they were on Jio Prime members and had got a recharge of Rs 303 or higher.
Post the 90 days of usage, Jio Prime consumers can recharge with Rs 309 or higher value every 28 days to continue availing data benefits. Though not as enticing as Jio's complementary offers, these plans still represent great value for money.
2) If the idea of continuing with Jio's services does not appeal to you, there are other options you can take a look at. State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has announced cheaper data plans for select postpaid subscribers.
Under the new offer, BSNL postpaid customers who subscribe to “Plan 99” will now receive 250MB of data. The plan did not offer any data previously. Customers who subscribe to “Plan 225” will now get 1GB data, which is 800MB more than the 200MB they used to receive.
Subscribers of “Plan 325” will receive 2GB of data compared to 250MB data they received previously. And finally, users of “Plan 525” and “Plan 725” will now receive 3GB and 5GB of data respectively, as compared to 500MB and 1GB of data they used to get. These postpaid offers will be activated automatically for the subscribers.
3) However, if BSNL and Reliance Jio plans fail to excite you, there are always other operators like Vodafone and Bharti Airtel who are waiting with open arms to take you back. These operators have even announced great plans to make it worth your while.
Bharti Airtel recently came up with an offer, "Monsoon Surprise" that gives an additional 30GB of 4G data for its postpaid users from July 1. This offer is valid for postpaid customers who subscribe to the Rs 499, Rs 649 and Rs 799 plans.
Vodafone, on the other hand, is not only offering great data benefits, but also providing free Netflix subscription with certain postpaid plans to sweeten the deal.
But if Netflix is not for you, and you happen to be a prepaid customer, the telecom operator is offering a new tariff plan called SuperNight, which promises unlimited 3G/4G data during the night – 1am-6am – for Rs 29.