Airtel lines up offers ahead of Jio broadband launch

Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 26

After the war of mobile tariffs, the telecom sector is set to see another round of battle, this time in the broadband segment with both Reliance Jio and Airtel looking to outdo each other in not only garnering subscribers but also trying to be better than the other in their offers.

As a precursor to the launch of the JioFibre services, where reports suggested that the Mukesh Ambani-controlled telecom operator would be offering complimentary access for 90 days at a blazing speed of as much as 100 Mbps with 100 GB of data free every month, Airtel has come out with its own offers.

Airtel will offer 1,000 GB extra broadband data to customers on select broadband plans. The ‘Bonus’ offer is currently active on Airtel web portal and can be availed of by new and existing customers who enrolled for Airtel broadband services on or after May 16. However, the offer is currently only available in the NCR.

Much to the cheer of thousands of broadband users, Airtel last week announced “larger bundles of data at existing prices” for its broadband subscribers.

Airtel almost doubled the high-speed data benefits for the same price under its refreshed plans. It said, “The new plans offer up to 100% more high-speed data benefits within the same monthly rentals.”

The revised pricing in the Delhi circle will see the Rs 899 plan now offering 60GB high-speed data compared to the earlier 30GB, while the Rs 1,099 plan will now offer 90GB of data compared to the previous 50GB.

Similarly, the Rs 1,299 plan now offers 125GB compared to 75GB, the Rs 1,499 plan offers 160GB compared to 100GB earlier, and the Rs 1,799 plan offers as much as 220GB of data. The company said pricing in other sectors will also be on the same lines.

The latest Airtel broadband offers come in the wake of Jio saying that it was testing its Fibrenet broadband service, JioFibre, in five major cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Jamnagar, Pune and Chennai.

Pass GST benefits to users, govt tells telcos

The Finance Ministry today asked telecom companies to rejig costs and lower prices to pass on the benefits of tax rate reduction under GST to customers from July.  Under the GST regime, which will come into being from July 1, telecom services will attract an 18% levy. Service providers can claim input tax credit which will bring down the effective incidence of the levy.