On the 17th of March, Idea Cellular announced that it would start offering 2G, 3G and 4G plans at the same price without any differential pricing.
It is believed that idea will start rolling out these new plans nationwide by March 31, 2017. The company claimed that with the proliferation of data in India, customers across different regions, using different devices belonging to different generations of network technology are ending up using much more data on their handheld devices than ever before. Currently, a customer buys a separate recharge for 2G, 3G or 4G at different price points for each technology and this leads to a lot of confusion in the mind of the user apart from the inconvenience caused.
According to Mr. Sashi Shankar, Chief Marketing Officer, Idea Cellular, “Idea’s simplified data pricing will ensure data recharges across all technologies are available at the same price point. The customer can choose the recharge price basis usage and volume available in the pack, without having to worry about the platform the customer’s device is logged in. As Idea’s Pan India Broadband coverage continues to expand and reduces the gap with existing 2G coverage which covers 4 lac towns & villages, customers can now seamlessly migrate services between technology & platform without worrying about differential costs. We believe that our simplified plans will enable consumers to enjoy the benefits of the high-speed Internet on smartphones and be a part of the Digital India revolution.”
Other secondary categories such as sachets, freedom packs will all be condensed, and the pricing is going to be uniform. It is believed to be rolled out in phases by 31st of May 2017. It means that no matter what your data consumption is, you can just recharge with one plan and this can be used in either 2G/3G or 4G smartphone.
And Idea Cellular has also made clear the fact that these Unified recharges shall be applicable only for recharges of at least 1GB. We’ve also received confirmation that the plans below 1 GB will be available as usual and the customers need to recharge them separately based on the device type and the network generation that it belongs. Idea Cellular is going to officially roll out their revised tariff plans by the end of this month, and it is expected that they will be much cheaper than the previous offerings. This could be another effect that Jio has caused on all the networks. Recently, Idea had started offering plans in competition with Jio network at Rs. 346 per month for the plan giving 1GB data per day and unlimited calling, and the network is also going to offer incoming calls for free during national roaming.
