Bharti Airtel today announced free voice calls to Airtel customers on any telecom network anywhere in India.

Airtel said its Rs 145 mobile pack offers 300 MB 4G data and free local and STD Airtel-to-Airtel calls in India.

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The Rs 345 pack from Airtel offers 1GB 4G data and free local and STD calls to any mobile network in India.

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The new mobile package from Airtel follows the decision of rival Reliance Jio Infocomm to extend free voice and data plans till March 31, 2017 from December 31, 2016.

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Yesterday, leading rating agency ICRA said Indian telecoms including Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, among others are going to post 5-7 percent drop in quarterly revenue during the third and fourth quarter of fiscal 2017 due to the impact by Reliance Jio and currency crisis.

Incidentally, voice business contributes more than 70 percent of the total revenue to Airtel. The free offer indicates that Bharti Airtel is responding to the free offers from Reliance Jio.

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Vodafone this week announced new data package in order to attract new mobile internet users and retain its existing subscriber base.

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Airtel, the largest mobile operator in the country with over 260 million mobile customers, offers 2G, 3G services in all 22 circles and 4G services in 21 circles. Airtel’s mobile network covers 96 percent of India’s population. Reliance Jio last week said 52 million 4G subscribers have subscribed to its free offer.

Airtel plans

Airtel is offering the new voice and data packs for its prepaid customers.

Rs 145 pack

Priced at Rs 145, the pack offers 300 MB data to customers with 4G ready mobile phones along with free local and STD Airtel-to-Airtel calls.

Rs 345 pack

Priced at Rs 345, the pack offers 1 GB data to customers with 4G ready mobile phones along with free local and STD calls to any network in India.

Both packs will offer 50 MB data (in addition to free calls to any network across India) to customers with basic mobile phones, which are ideally suited for web surfing and accessing light social media applications.

Baburajan K
[email protected]