“The Rs 1,699 prepaid plan, which comes with 365-days validity, also offers unlimited local and STD calling, SMS messages and Vodafone Play services.”

Vodafone Rs 1,699 prepaid recharge was so far lagging behind the competition in terms of what it offered. However, as of today, the largest telecom operator of India has updated its annual prepaid plan to make it at par with what Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are offering. While the Vodafone Rs 1,699 prepaid recharge plan previously offered 1GB data per day, it has now been updated to offer an additional 500MB of 4G/3G data every day, hence bringing up the total to 1.5GB of 4G or 3G data per day, for a duration of 365 days. According to reports, the plan will initially be available only in Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Kolkata, Maharashtra, Mumbai, and UP East circles.

Furthermore, alongside the allocated data, Vodafone users who purchase this prepaid plan will also get unlimited local and STD calls, unlimited calling on national roaming, 100 SMS messages every day, and access to Vodafone’s entertainment and content suite, Vodafone Play. The plan is significantly more efficient in terms of the overall cost of the subscription, bringing it down to just Rs 141.5 for each month. For reference, at present, Vodafone’s monthly equivalent prepaid plan costs Rs 199, which also offers the same benefits in terms of data, calling and messaging.

Vodafone’s latest revision of its annual prepaid plan brings it in line with what Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have been offering. Airtel presently offers its customers 1.4GB of data per day, along with unlimited calling and 100 SMS messages per day, with perks such as periodic subscriptions of Netflix or Amazon Prime Video, for Rs 1,699. Jio, on the other hand, offers exactly the same package as Vodafone, along with its own suite of infotainment services. Jio has also been planning to start programming of its own original content, which it may then bundle with its telecom plans in order to appeal to customers over and above its already affordable data plans.

With prices of both prepaid and postpaid services nearly neck-and-neck, telecom operators are said to be formulating content strategies in order to hold on to their market shares. Earlier this month, Reliance Jio finally usurped Bharti Airtel’s industry position, now taking up second place in terms of market share in the mobile operator space. The Vodafone-Idea group still holds on to the top spot, although it has been steadily losing a large number of customers each month, as per data revealed by TRAI. With plan revisions such as this, Vodafone will hope to curb the flow of outgoing subscribers, and revive its market share in the long run.