Vodafone India offers unlimited voice calls, roaming to hold onto top customers

KOLKATA: Vodafone India, the country's second-largest carrier, started offering unlimited voice calls and roaming on two high-value postpaid packs to hold on to its higher revenue paying customers ahead of Reliance Jio Infocomm's much awaited commercial launch of 4G services.

Vodafone's move comes less than a fortnight after No 1 carrier, Bharti Airtel launched free and unlimited voice calls to ringfence its top revenue generating customers.

On Thursday, Vodafone India launched two new postpaid packs under its `Red series', priced at Rs 1699 and Rs 1999, offering unlimited voice calls bundled with 6GB and 8GB of 3G/4G data respectively.

Those opting for the Rs 1999 plan will also enjoy unlimited roaming both for incoming and outgoing calls, while those on the Rs 1699 plan will enjoy
free roaming for incoming calls, and pay 0.50/minute for outgoing calls while roaming.

"With the new Vodafone Red plans, there is no more holding back. We are offering our postpaid customers an all-in-one plan that addresses their roaming, data and voice needs comprehensively," Sandeep Kataria, director (commercial) at Vodafone India, said in an official statement.

Vodafone India has also launched a string of entry level postpaid packs under its `Red series' priced to boost data consumption levels at the low and middle end of the market. More so, since, postpaid subscribers tend to be stickier than prepaid users.

The new entry-level postpaid packs priced at Rs 499, 699 and Rs 999 offer 700 minutes, 1000 minutes and 2000 minutes of voice calls bundled with 1GB, 2GB and 3GB of 3G/4G data.

Vodafone India's move comes after the telco reported slower data revenue growth in the April-June quarter, which pulled down its top line during the period by 3.4% to Rs 13,500 crore.

Vodafone's unlimited voice calls offer on the heels of Airtel's comes shortly after Reliance Industries said in its annual report that its telecom arm Jio would commercially launch its 4G services at "substantially lower" rates than incumbent carriers.

Once Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio goes commercial, it is slated to cause a massive disruption in both data and voice pricing, that could culminate in another round of blood-letting in an already fiercely competitive sector. Analysts, in fact, expect Jio to shortly offering free voice services bundled with data, priced at least 25% lower than current offerings of top rivals.