Now, this is something new and interesting from Airtel – They have announced what is called the “Data Share Plan”, a first of its kind, where an Airtel user will be able to share his or her data connection with 2 other users or 3 of his own devices.
Here is an example which might explain how the Data Share Plan works.
Lets say you have subscribed to a 1 GB data plan on your pre-paid connection on Airtel. However, your usage has been very low during the period and you have used up only about 100 mb in first 20 – 25 days. On the other hand you have a friend who has exhausted his data quota on his Airtel connection. So it is possible that you can actually share the unused data on your connection with the friend in need of it.
Another example would be that a family of Husband, wife and daughter, of whom only one can subscribe for a plan and all 3 of them can share data on the single plan.
According to me this might really be useful to a lot of people, especially who have decent amount of data usage on their mobiles.
An interesting aspect about this “Data Share Plan” is that the data can be shared between postpaid as well as pre-paid customers making it available to close to 200 million users on Airtel Network.
Although the Data Share Plan feature is really good, the plan pricing will put off a lot of people. It is only valid for a 5GB internet plan which costs Rs. 1000/-. Though it is an unlimited plan, 3G speeds will be available only till 5GB, and later on the speed will be reduced to 80kbps, which actually is unusable for anything!
How to Activate Data Share Plan
- Visit Airtel’s Data Share Plan page or SMS 3G to 121.
- If you visit the website, follow the instructions and add the numbers or
- SMS Data Share Add Mobile Number to 121
You can add upto 2 numbers and once you have done that you can start sharing the data connection.
Overall, I think it is a good feature, but Airtel should have definitely come up with smaller plans as well. This Data Share plan starting at Rs. 1000 will put off a lot of users according to me.
What do you think? Will other operators also take the cue and launch similar kind of data plans?
I prefer using Broadband connection. This way I can be sure that I’m gonna be fully satisfied with my Internet.
I like it. The sharing between friends is retarded, but sharing between your own multiple devices, such as your mobile phone, tablet and data card, that’s smart. They have family plans abroad, where an entire family has a single shared plan, so something similar.
Siddharth, Although I agree with you… I think even sharing with family and friends would be very useful to many. Its a good idea…especially because prepaid guys can also take advantage of some postpaid data plans on offer…
I like it. The sharing between friends is retarded, but sharing between your own multiple devices, such as your mobile phone, tablet and data card, that's smart. They have family plans abroad, where an entire family has a single shared plan, so something similar.