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Vodafone Offers Free Netflix, Rollover Of Extra Data To Woo Customers

Vodafone’s new RED postpaid plans start from Rs 499 and go up to Rs 2,999.

Men talk on mobile phones outside a Vodafone India Ltd. store in Mumbai, India (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)  
Men talk on mobile phones outside a Vodafone India Ltd. store in Mumbai, India (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)  

Vodafone India today unveiled a spate of new postpaid plans with incentives such as free domestic calling, carrying forward unused data, and even Netflix subscription in some cases, as India’s second largest telecom operator looks to hold on to customers amid competition from Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

The new set of Vodafone RED postpaid plans, starting from Rs 499 and going up to Rs 2,999 a month, will offer unlimited calls in India including national roaming, the telecom operator said an emailed statement. The plans also allow users to roll over balance data up to 200 GB every month, the statement added.

The operator will also give customers free access to digital content and live television on its Vodafone Play platform across all plans. Besides, the plans includes a free subscription to digital newsstand Magzter, giving access to more than 4,000 magazine publications.

For the Rs 999 monthly tariff plan and above, Vodafone is offering 12 months of free Netflix subscription.
Vodafone Offers Free Netflix, Rollover Of Extra Data To Woo Customers

Vodafone has been continuously losing customers for the last three months. It lost 44.9 lakh customers between July and September even as Jio strengthened its foothold. The Mukesh Ambani-backed operator reported an average revenue per user earnings of Rs 154 per month, higher than market leader Bharti Airtel Ltd.’s Rs 145.

Jio made its services for free in the first six months after its launch and thereafter offered data at comparatively cheaper rates, triggering off a pricing war and leading to consolidation in the telecom industry. A merger between Vodafone and Idea Cellular Ltd. is currently in the works.

Its new RED plans are still priced higher than that of Reliance Jio’s. The newest operator’s most popular 84-day plan of Rs 459 offers free calling and 1 GB of 4G data per day. However, it doesn't allow carrying forward unused data. Earlier in July, Bharti Airtel unveiled plans in July that allowed rolling over of unused data to the next month.

The plans will be available to consumers from November 8, but won't be launched in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh, the release said.

Highlights

  • New RED plans also offer handset protection feature from theft and damage.
  • Plans over Rs 1,299 per month will offer at least 100 minutes free international calling to U.S., Canada, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.
  • All new plans offer the standard 100 text messages per day.