Highlights
- JioPostpaid Plus service will likely be exclusive to JioFiber customers
- Reliance Jio is planning to take on Airtel and Vodafone Idea with JioPostpaid Plus service
Reliance Jio is lagging behind Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea when it comes to postpaid segment, however, the Mukesh Ambani-owned telco is looking to change that this year with the all-new JioPostpaid Plus service. Announced at the 42nd Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries on August 12, JioPostpaid Plus service will be available to the subscribers on September 5, alongside JioFiber. Right now, Reliance Jio has a single postpaid plan of Rs 199, which isn’t an excellent option for the customers looking for postpaid plans as they want something different compared to prepaid plan benefits. Bharti Airtel has just four postpaid plans starting at Rs 499, but the telco is providing several additional benefits like Netflix subscription, Amazon Prime membership worth Rs 999 for free, data rollover facility, child connections with data sharing facility and so on. Will the upcoming JioPostpaid Plus service become a threat to Bharti Airtel with its offerings? Well, let’s find out.
JioPostpaid Plus: What is It and What it Offers?
Last year, Reliance Jio stepped into the postpaid segment with JioPostpaid plan priced at Rs 199. As the name of JioPostpaid Plus itself suggests, it will be an upgraded version of original JioPostpaid service. Right now, we don’t have the pricing of JioPostpaid Plus plans or just a single plan, but we do know what the company is planning to offer under this upcoming service.
At the Reliance Industries AGM, Mukesh Ambani stated that the JioPostpaid Plus service could be availed right from the subscriber’s home as the company is planning to offer India’s first priority SIM set up service at home. Even Jio promises Mobile Number Portability (MNP) service at the customer’s doorstep, so there will not be any hassle of running to Jio Digital Stores with the Unique Porting Code (UPC) for MNP.
Prepaid plans these days ship with daily data benefit, but that isn’t the case with postpaid plans from incumbent telcos Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Reliance Jio is also touting that the JioPostpaid Plus service will offer seamless voice & data connectivity everywhere, probably the company is referring to the unlimited data and voice calling features which may ship with Postpaid Plus plans.
Finally, Reliance Jio will be implementing data sharing feature with JioPostpaid Plus service. Bharti Airtel is providing four postpaid plans and three of them ship with child add-on connections, where users can share their primary account data benefit with the child connections. JioPostpaid Plus is touted to offer unprecedented family plans with data sharing, which is currently being offered by Airtel. It will be interesting to see whether Jio implements data carry forward functionality or not.
JioPostpaid Plus will provide affordable international roaming plans to the customers along with phone upgrades at preferential rates. Reliance Jio may team up with smartphone brands to bring mobile phones with bundled JioPostpaid Plus plan. In the United States and other countries, customers can purchase a mobile phone with a locked SIM card, and the same was introduced by Reliance Jio and Airtel a couple of years ago in India as well. However, the concept did not take off as there were no proper phone upgrade options. In the US, customers on a specific carrier will be given an option to upgrade their current phone with the latest model once it comes out. That said, JioPostpaid Plus service promises the introduction of phone upgrades at user-preferred costs, which is an exciting aspect to see.
JioPostpaid Plus vs Airtel Postpaid: What Can We Expect?
When it comes to postpaid plans, Bharti Airtel is the leading telco as it’s providing wide-range of plans with attractive benefits to the customers. Airtel is already providing two significant features which JioPostpaid Plus will likely offer- family data sharing plans and seamless data & voice connectivity. However, JioPostpaid Plus promises smartphone upgrades as user-preferred rates and priority SIM set up service at user doorstep. On the flip side, no telco can beat Bharti Airtel in terms of OTT service subscriptions. All the Airtel postpaid plans ship with three months of free Netflix service, one-year of Amazon Prime membership worth Rs 999 for free, premium ZEE5 membership, Shaw Academy online courses, Airtel TV Premium and so on. Reliance Jio did not promise any such benefits with JioPostpaid Plus service, but it will be interesting to see the prices of the plans from Jio.
Also, it’s said that the JioPostpaid Plus service will also provide Home Solutions (not sure whether the company is referring to IoT products it’s planning to offer next year) to the customers and the service will be limited to just JioFiber users. That being said, the road for Reliance Jio is tough ahead in the postpaid segment, but we all know how aggressive will Jio get into when it comes to pricing its plans.
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