Bharti Airtel restructures tariff plans to offer SMS & voice-only services

Bharti Airtel has modified certain packs to offer SMS and voice-only services in compliance with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) recent directives.

Among these packs is the Airtel Rs 509 prepaid plan which now offers unlimited voice calls and 900 SMS with a validity of 84 days. It additionally provides benefits such as the telco’s anti-spam service, Airtel Xstream access, Apollo 24|7 Circle access for 3-months, and hello tunes.

This plan earlier also offered 6GB of data, which has been now excluded, shows the latest listing on Airtel’s website.

The Airtel Rs 1,999 prepaid plan has also been revamped to offer unlimited voice calls and 3,600 SMS with a validity of 365 days. Its additional benefits include the telco’s anti-spam service, Airtel Xstream access, Apollo 24|7 Circle access for 3-months, and hello tunes.

Likewise, its data benefit of 24GB has been removed.

However, Airtel has not released an official statement and it is not clear when these changes were made.

Following extensive consultations with stakeholders, the sector regulator last month mandated telcos to offer voice and SMS-only tariff plans to price-conscious mobile consumers.

The move is expected to particularly benefit India’s approximately 150 million 2G users, dual SIM owners, and elderlies, and rural residents who do not want to pay for data-bundled tariffs, ET had reported citing officials.

The directives, however, are not in sync with Reliance Jio and Airtel’s efforts to migrate the 2G users to 4G, and fifth-generation or 5G-backed broadband services to boost their average revenue per user (ARPU).

Private telcos, including Vodafone Idea (Vi), have opposed TRAI’s move citing that there is no need for such packs as data has become the central element of all modern communications. State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), which does not have a pan-India 4G operation, has supported the introduction of voice and SMS-only packs.