Airtel Introduces 'Unlimited Data' In Prepaid Recharge Packs Starting At Rs 199

Bharti Airtel has updated its FUP or Fair Usage Policy. Prepaid subscribers of Bharti Airtel - which provides telecom services under brand Airtel - will now continue to receive mobile data after exhausting the prescribed daily limit of high speed data during the validity period of certain recharge packs. This was confirmed by a customer care executive of Airtel. The executive further said that an Airtel prepaid user with a recharge pack of Rs 199 and above will continue to receive data at 128 Kbps after exhausting the daily data limit.

That means an Airtel subscriber recharging with a pack of Rs 199 and consuming 1.4 GBs of high speed mobile data in a day during the validity period will be no longer charged for additional data for the remaining period of the day. Subsequently, another 1.4 GBs will be allotted with the change of day during the validity period of the pack. Previously, such a user was charged a certain fee per unit of data consumed beyond the daily limit.

Bharti Airtel currently offers 1.4 GBs of data per day, among other benefits, for a validity period of 28 days in a recharge pack priced at Rs 199. Other benefits include unlimited local, STD and roaming calls along with 100 free SMS per day for the entire validity period, according to Bharti Airtel's website - airtel.in.

Changes to FUP by Airtel come amid high competition in the telecom sector, triggered by aggressive pricing of high speed data by latest entrant Reliance Jio. Reliance Jio - which provides telecom services under brand Jio - currently offers a revised speed of 64 Kbps beyond high speed data limit subscribed for a day.

For example, in a recharge pack priced at Rs 198, Reliance Jio offers 56 GBs of high speed data with a daily limit of 2 GBs, among other benefits, for a validity period of 28 days. For a Jio prepaid subscriber consuming 2 GBs of high speed data in a day during the validity period, data continues at 64 Kbps for the remaining period of the day. Other benefits of the Rs 198 pack include free local, STD and roaming voice calls and 100 SMS per day.

The changes to the Airtel FUP policy were reported by TelecomTalk earlier. "The largest telco (telecom operator) of the country has decided that it would now make their plans truly unlimited by allowing a speed of 128 Kbps post the completion of FUP limit," the report had said.