Vodafone To Join Data War, Announce Plans Shortly

New Delhi: With mobile services market hotting up ahead of Reliance Jio’s launch, Vodafone India on Tuesday said it will announce revised plans for data pack in a day or two to keep its promise of offering “competitive” rates to customers.

“We always believe in giving value to customers. We will shortly be coming out with our plans,” Vodafone India CEO Sunil Sood said when asked if his company too plans to join other operators in cutting rates on data packs.

Mr Sood, who was speaking on the sidelines of the GSMA Mobile Connect event, declined to quantify the data benefit that company will offer to its customers.

On whether Vodafone will match rivals Airtel and Idea, both of which recently announced up to 67 per cent more data on existing packs at no extra cost, Mr Sood said, “We give competitive tariff and value to customers… We continue to do that… We are making our plans and will be announcing it shortly.”

On Sunday, Airtel announced plans to offer pre-paid customers as much as 67 per cent more data for the same price, and Idea followed it a day later with a similar reduction in 4G and 3G BIG Internet packs.

Operators have upped the ante in the data war as industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio may launch high-speed data and 4G voice services as early as August. Reliance Jio is already offering services for a limited number of users on a trial basis, integrating spectrum and testing the network.

Jio, which has 1.5 million customers in its beta tests, may offer high-speed data at very low price or may bundle free voice calls to lure users in the world’s second largest smartphone market.

The company initially offered 4G SIM cards bundled with its LYF smartphones, priced at as low as Rs 2,999. Jio is also offering services with Samsung phones and may expand it to include iPhones in the near future.

Jio is offering 90 days of free unlimited 4G mobile Internet and voice calling.