Vodafone Idea (Vi) has once again shocked its customers. The company has increased the price of one of its affordable prepaid plans, and now users will have to pay more for it. Vi has raised the price of the popular ₹509 plan to ₹548. This plan offers voice calls, data, and SMS facilities with a validity of 84 days. Earlier, this plan included unlimited calling, 1,000 SMS, and 6 GB or 9 GB of data depending on the circle. After the price hike, the company has slightly improved the benefits, but the cost has also gone up.
In Vi's new ₹548 plan, customers will get a validity of only 84 days. During this period, they will enjoy unlimited voice calls on all networks and 1,000 SMS messages. The plan's data benefits have also been improved, with users now getting 7 GB or 10 GB of data depending on the circle, which is 1 GB more than the previous plan. However, once the data limit is reached, an additional charge of 50 paise per MB will be applied. After the price increase, the plan's daily cost has now risen to approximately ₹6.52.
In recent times, while talking about tariff hikes, the CEO of Vi had taken a “wait and watch” stance. Nevertheless, the company has gradually started increasing the rates of all plans. Due to this change, Vi’s 84-day prepaid plan has become ₹39 more expensive, although there has been a slight increase in data benefits. So, while the benefits for users have improved slightly, the overall increase in cost is evident.
Last month too, Vi had made changes to their ₹429 plan. Earlier, this plan offered 84 days of validity, 3 GB data, unlimited calling, and 600 SMS. But now the company has reduced the validity of this plan in the Rajasthan circle to 65 days, meaning it has been cut by 19 days. After the change, the data benefits have been increased to 5 GB. Unlimited calling and SMS benefits will remain unchanged. Due to this change, the daily cost of this plan now reaches ₹6.6.
This series of price hikes has created an atmosphere of dissatisfaction among customers. Many Vi customers are reacting to this decision on social media. According to experts, Vi is currently increasing tariffs to boost revenue and improve its financial stability. However, this increase will have a direct impact on the pockets of ordinary customers, and in a competitive market, retaining customers could be a major challenge for Vi.
Vodafone Idea has increased the ₹509 plan to ₹548.
Data benefits have been increased by 1 GB.
The validity of 84 days has been maintained.
Customers are expressing dissatisfaction over the price hike.
Vi has previously made changes to the ₹429 plan as well.