Reliance Jio effect: Vodafone offers 4GB data to customers on upgrade to its 4G network

India's second largest telecom service provider, Vodafone on Tuesday announced that users can now avail 4GB of free data when they upgrade their SIM cards to 4G network. It comes as a counter against Reliance Jio's plans. The new Vodafone 4G SIM cards are available at Vodafone Stores, Vodafone Mini Stores and multi-brand outlets across Mumbai, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.  

Vodafone offer is available for both prepaid and post-paid users. Prepaid users can use 4GB free data through a validity period of 10 days. Whereas, Vodafone post-paid users can use the 4GB free data until the next billing date."The free data shall be added to the customer's data balance on upgrading to a 4G SIM," Vodafone said in a statement.

Pushpinder Singh Gujral, Business Head of Mumbai, Vodafone India said that Vodafone is proud to be the preferred telecom services provider to over 9 million customers in Mumbai and it is offering the 4GB data to their customers to make them experience the benefits of Vodafone's Data Strong Network .

Vodafone SuperNet 4G services are available across 17 circles in India- Kerala, Kolkata, Karnataka, Delhi, Mumbai, Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh (East), West Bengal, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Assam & North East, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra & Goa, Uttar Pradesh (West).

Recently, Reliance Jio stirred up the telecom industry in India after it introduced its disruptive data plans that has led other major telcos to churn out more resources. Reliance Jio on Tuesday announced its new plan called 'Dhan Dhana Dhan' offer under which the user can get three months of unlimited data and free calls for a one-time recharge of Rs 309.

Interested  Vodafone customers, who want to switch over to 4G network, can use the following steps:

1. Buy a SIM card from any of the Vodafone stores
2. To activate the 4G SIM card, SMS 'SIMEX ' to 55199 from your existing Vodafone number
3. You will receive a response SMS from 55199 with partial SIM number entered
4. Then, you need to send the last 6 digits of the new SIM number to 55199 within 2 hours of receiving the SMS mentioned in the above step
5. You will receive a success SMS, post which your 4G SIM will be activated within 20 minutes.
6. Subsequently, replace your old SIM in the handset with the new 4G SIM and 4G services will get activated.

Vodafone had recently announced a merger with Idea Cellular to form a new entity. The merger is expected to be implemented within a course of two years, post which the newly formed entity will be the largest telecom service provider of this country.