Vodafone launches Innovative Rs. 4/- Tariff plans with Daily Validity – Is Telecom Industry gearing up for Consolidation?

Believe it or not – the bottom formation process for the tariff price wars in the telecom sector has already commenced!

It certainly seems that the depressed telecom industry has kicked off with the much needed consolidation in terms of intense price wars which had almost raised a question mark on the viability of the business case in this capital intensive industry.

This is clearly evident from the fact that Vodafone has launched a budget sized tariff plans priced at meager Rs.4 with 1 day validity.

Doesn’t it sound music to ears – with a tariff plan as low as Rs.4 ?

Not really!!

This is a typical brainchild of telecom czars to have come up with innovative usage plans that slowly and gradually sucks up Rs.4 on a daily basis from your talk time. Firstly, let’s have a look at some of the plans to start with…

For the subscribers of Mumbai, Delhi, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and some other circles Vodafone has come out with four different plans of Rs.4 each, dedicated to SMS and Call services, both.

Vodafone Rs. 4 Tariff Plan

Tariff Plans (All schemes of Rs.4/-)	Validity
100 local / national SMS	1 day
8 local / STD minutes (Any network)	1 day
Local Vodafone calls @20 ps/minutes	1 day
Night Calling 40 minutes (11 pm to 8 am)	1 day

For the above tariff schemes, the Vodafone customers can subscribe to any of the plans priced at Rs.4/- with validity of 1 day, depending upon their desirable usage profile. You simply need to have a minimum balance of Rs.4 in your prepaid account to activate this daily validity pack.

The cliché in such chota recharge plans is that once they are activated, you don’t have to log-on to keep these plans alive on daily basis. Their system automatically deducts Rs.4 on daily basis from your core account balance until, of course, you get it deactivated personally.

But, are such budget chota packet recharge plans really cheap?

Not really, if you calculate Rs.4 deduction from your overall balance spanning across the month, it sums up to Rs.120 for a 30 day period. Your prepaid balance will be lower by Rs.120/- per month, irrespective of whether you use the desired plan on a daily basis or not.

Yes, these are plans that only SUBSIDISE your consumption pattern. Over and above Rs.4 per day, you also pay up discounted charges, which you should add up to your usage cost.

However, there is nothing in writing that such schemes will certainly be expensive for you. If your usage is higher (or more regular in nature on daily basis) for a particular scheme, you could as well squeeze in benefits from such schemes. But, then there always are schemes with higher denominations – if your usage profile is relatively congested.

To sum it up, this could well be a much-needed innovative up-tick away from the depressing tariff wars entered into by telecom operators. It’s a positive move for the healthy sustenance of the telecom industry. Though, we should not analyze too deeply into this one-off tariff plan, for now.

So, are we looking at an upward curve for the well fought out telecom sector?