You Won’t get Free SMS In These Prepaid Plans From Jio, Airtel, Vi: End Of Free SMS Services?

While registering your number on any payment platform in the present age, an SMS is initiated from the registered phone linked to your bank, for verification purposes.

While most people do not recharge their numbers with an additional SMS plan because of the bundled SMS services provided in the recharge plan, this is now going to change for customers recharging with low-cost prepaid plans.

Telecom operators have cut out the free SMS benefits from their prepaid plans of under Rs 100.

This means that in a bundled recharge package of under Rs 100, which initially included call time, SMS and internet usage data, users will no longer get free SMS benefits.

Users will have to recharge with bundle packs above Rs 100 to enjoy the free SMS benefits. This will cause a problem for low prepaid recharge plan users.

Jio, Airtel and Vi Too Follow Trend

Telecom operators including Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea, among others have announced removing SMS benefits for prepaid recharge packs priced under Rs 100.

Reliance Jio was the first operator to take this step back in May this year. 

All entry level recharge packs are now seen to have excluded the free SMS services.

For instance, Vodafone Idea offers many prepaid recharge plans under Rs 100 for its subscribers. None of them are now offering the SMS benefits.

Vi’s entry-level prepaid recharge plan of Rs 49 offers internet data of 100MB, along with a talktime of Rs 38 for 28 days but no free SMS anymore.

Similarly, Airtel’s lowest prepaid plan priced at Rs 79, offers 200MB internet data and a talktime for Rs 64 for 28 days, without any inclusion of bundled outgoing SMS.

Jio’s prepaid recharge plan of Rs 98 provides internet data of 1.5 GB for a total of 14 days, in extension to unlimited voice callings and subscriptions to several Jio powered services but no SMS services.

Clearly, by this move, telecom operators are looking forward to increasing their average revenue per user (ARPU), as users will now have to subscribe for a higher-priced prepaid plan to enjoy free SMS benefits.