These Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and Reliance Jio plans don’t offer free SMS benefits – Times of India

When was the last time you used the SMS app for a conversation? The days in which SMS packs were separately bought have been long gone — thanks to instant messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal. Now it seems that the telecom companies are taking steps in the direction to completely get them out of the picture.
The three big telecom companies of the country — Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and Reliance Jio — do not offer free SMS benefits with the prepaid packs that are priced under Rs 150. This means that the low-cost prepaid plans from Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and Reliance Jio do not offer a benefit that other prepaid plans offer.
Here’s a look at the plans from the three telecom companies:
Airtel Rs 79 plan
Talk time: Rs 64
Data: 200 MB
Calling charge: 1 paisa /second
Validity: 28 days
Airtel Rs 19 plan
Data: 200MB
Calling: Unlimited
Validity 2 days
Reliance Jio Rs 98 plan
Data: 1.5GB per day
Calling: Unlimited
Validity 14 days
Vodafone-Idea Rs 99
Data: 1GB
Calling: Unlimited
Validity 18 days
Vodafone-Idea Rs 109
Data: 1GB
Calling: Unlimited
Validity 20 days
Recently, Airtel revised both prepaid and postpaid plans offered in the country.
In the prepaid offerings, Airtel increased the pricing of its base plan. Airtel’s Rs 79 Smart Recharge prepaid plan is the new entry-level plan from the company. The new Airtel Prepaid Recharge plan replaces the company’s existing Rs 49 plan, which has been discontinued.
As for the post-paid segment, the telco discontinued its Rs 749 Family postpaid plan and the same now starts at Rs 999. Along with this, it has also discontinued Rs 199 and Rs 249 plans for enterprise customers. The post-paid plans for corporate customers now start at Rs 299 while the new retail plans at Rs 399.