Reliance Jio vs Airtel vs Vodafone: Top international roaming plans compared

A quick comparison between international roaming plans offered by Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone

All three major telecom operators Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone offer international roaming services so that you can make and receive calls to or from home country. Many frequent travellers these days  opt for such international roaming packs, considering the advantage of using your existing local number during the trip. Plus, there’s no such requirement to activate or deactivate the service.

Here’s a quick comparison between international roaming plans offered by Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone

Reliance Jio

To apply for international roaming you need to purchase Rs 1101 pack via MyJio.com or Jio.com. While Reliance Jio does offer international roaming, it does’t offer customisable plans. At the moment, it only offers pay-per-usage rates for all countries that seems to be more expensive than other telcos. For instance, its outgoing calls from Australia to India is priced at Rs 142.50 per minute, incoming calls at Rs 71.25 per minute, outgoing SMS at Rs 23.75 per minute, and mobile data at Rs 6.18 per Rs 10 kilobyte (KB).

Reliance Jio has recently launched its international tariffs, including ISD rate cutter plans which offer international calling at as low as Rs 3 per minute. Users need to recharge with Rs 501 to activate Jio’s rate-cutter plans. International calls to countries including Bangladesh, USA, Singapore, New Zealand, UK, Belgium, Brazil, Hungary, Mongolia, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden and more can be made at Rs 3 per minute.

Plus, those calling to France, Malaysia, Pakistan, Japan, Argentina, Denmark, Israel, South Korea and more will have to pay Rs 4.8 per minute. Reliance Jio’s international call tariffs go up to Rs 13 per minute for places like Nepal, UAE and Rs 13.8 per minute for Bahrain.

Airtel 

Airtel is also offering international roaming plans; and the biggest benefit include unlimited incoming calls and texts to India. In fact charges for calls to India and local in-country calls have been reduced to Rs 3 per minute  across popular destinations including the US, Canada, UK, Singapore and Australia.

The Rs. 2,999 pack is valid for 10 days and it includes 3GB of data and 250 minutes of calls to India and local calls. Then there is the Rs 649 pack which is valid for a day and includes  5 GB of data and 500 minutes of local calls and calls made to India. Next up is the Rs. 3,999 plan with a validity of 30 days. It includes  5GB of data,  500 minutes of outgoing local calls as well as calls to India, and unlimited calls. All these packs are valid for a countries including China, Mexico, Kuwait, and the Netherlands.

Vodafone

Vodafone is offering international roaming services. According to the operator, its ‘i-Roam Free’ is available in 60 countries including USA, UAE and Singapore and 18 countries have unlimited benefits. The pack is available at different price points with options of Rs 5,000 for 30-days, Rs 3,500 for 10-days and Rs 2,500 for 7-days. Vodafone i-RoamFree is unlimited in the UK, 13 other European countries and Malaysia.