Jio vs Airtel vs Vi: Voice-Only Prepaid Plans Compared

Following a direct mandate by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), operators like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) were instructed to introduce voice-only prepaid recharge plans in India. These plans forced operators to detach their voice+SMS plans from their respective data bundles. Since the emergence of data plans in the country (3G onwards) all three operators did not offer standalone voice and SMS packs until the mandate was imposed, forcing users to sign up for data bundles even if they had no requirement for the same.

Benefits of voice-only prepaid plans

With the mandate now imposed, Airtel, Jio and Vi have started offering voice-only plans for their respective customers. These plans claim to offer unlimited calling, limited SMS but no data. And since there’s no data bundle coupled with the voice and SMS plan, it drastically brings down the price, making basic phone features accessible to many.

This may have come as a relief for those who never needed a data plan but were still forced to buy one even if their feature phone never supported it. Such plans are useful for digitally inexperienced or technologically challenged users so were never to keep on using the bundled data that came with basic calling and SMS plans.

There are also users who simply need a secondary SIM card/ connection for calls. While some prefer to use a second number for personal calls, others prefer these for office calls. And there are also users who wish to connect their bank accounts to separate phone numbers (for calls and OTPs) that remain disconnected from the internet.