Airtel Launches 6 Combo Recharge Packs With Up to 84-Day Validity, 2GB Data to Take on Vodafone Idea, Jio

Airtel has launched six new smart recharge packs for its prepaid customers. The new Airtel recharges start from as low as Rs. 25 and go up to Rs. 245, and offer talk time, data, and rate cutter benefits. This comes on the heels of Vodafone Idea's new recharges that are of the same six denominations as the new Airtel combo packs, with a starting validity of 28 days. Airtel and Vodafone Idea are coming up with new packs and benefits regularly to take on the fast-growing competition from Jio. To recall, Jio managed to add 11.796 million subscribers just in July this year, ten times more than all the rivals' added subscribers combined.

Airtel has launched new Smart Recharges in denominations of Rs. 25, Rs. 35, Rs. 65, Rs. 95, Rs. 145 and Rs. 245. The Rs. 25 Smart Recharge offers Rs. 18.69 talk time and 10MB data for a validity of 28 days. The Rs. 35 Smart Recharge pack gives subscribers Rs. 26.6 talk time, 100MB data, and discounts voice calls at 60 paise per minute for a validity of 28 days as well. The Rs. 65 Smart Recharge offers Rs. 65 talk time, 200MB data, and discounts voice calls at 60 paise per minute, for a validity of 28 days. The Rs. 95 Smart Recharge offers Rs. 95 talk time, 500MB data, and discounts the voice calls to 30 paise per minute for a validity of 28 days.

The Airtel Rs. 145 Smart Recharge offers full talk time, 1GB data, and discounts voice calls to 30 paise per minute for a validity of 28 days. Lastly, the Rs. 245 Airtel recharge offers full talk time, 2GB data, and discounts voice call to 30 paise per minute for a validity of 84 days. To recall, three of these recharges were first launched earlier this month - specifically, the Rs. 35, Rs. 65, and Rs. 95 combo recharge packs, though the voice call rates have changed from 1p/sec in all three cases.

Airtel in a statement to the media said the new recharges are available in Tamil Nadu, UP West, and Punjab circles, though a TelecomTalk report claims it is also available in Chennai and will be heading to Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana circles soon. In Chennai, the report claims, these recharges are available as open market ones, and the other low denomination packs above Rs. 20 that used to offer talk time only, have been removed. Users will now have to rely on the Smart Recharges for talk time, and the validity attached to these recharges does not apply to the talk time added. For only talk time, Airtel presently lists only the Rs. 10 pack on its website.

As mentioned, Vodafone Idea also launched combo recharges with the similar denominations in select circles. These recharges offer talk time, data, and rate cut benefits with the validity spanning from 28 days to 84 days.