In order to attract new users, telecom operators are launching and revising their existing plans. However, removing or discontinuing prepaid packs is not a common practice in the industry. The discontinuing of a plan happens only when a telecom operator does not get proper revenues from it or wants customers to choose higher-value packs.
Now, Airtel has discontinued its Rs. 99 plan, which used to offer 1GB of data, 100 messages, Airtel Xstream, Wynk Music, and Zee5 Premium access for 18 days. The plan was available in Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Rajasthan, and UP East. After this removal, users can choose Rs. 19 and Rs. 129 pack.
Why Is Airtel Discontinuing Cheap Prepaid Plans?
Surprisingly, Airtel discontinued this plan after posting profit. Besides, the company has managed to increase its average revenue per user, which is again a good sign and indicates that it is recovering from a financial crisis. The telecom operator has also introduced the Smart Recharge section, where all plans are priced under Rs. 100. These Smart Recharge packs will help users to continue their services.
Apart from that, Airtel launched high-value plans that offer unlimited calling and OTT benefits. The main reason behind the launch is to attract users towards the high-value packs so that the telecom operator can increase its revenues from those packs.
Notably, Airtel is not the only telecom operator that removed or discontinued the cheap tariff plans. Earlier, Reliance Jio discontinued Rs. 99, Rs. 153, Rs. 297, and Rs. 594. In fact, Jio has revised its entire pack list. The new list is divided into three new segments, such as Best Selling, Trending, and Super Value. This segment is specially designed to help customers so that they can choose plans as per the trend. Vi (Vodafone-Idea) has done this thing before.
Apart from discontinuing cheap prepaid plans, telecom operators are removing OTT apps subscriptions from their postpaid plans like Vi stopped offering Zee5 access with its Rs. 499, Rs. 699, and Rs. 1,099. The packs of Rs. 499 and Rs. 699 are now offering access to Amazon Prime and Disney+ Hotstar, while the Rs. 1, 099 pack is providing Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ Hotstar access.