Jio Rs. 498 recharge and Airtel Rs. 499 pack also offer 2GB data per day
In another move to counter Jio and Airtel, Idea Cellular has introduced a new recharge pack worth Rs. 499 for its subscribers. Under the new plan, the telecom service provider is offering a total of 164GB of 4G/ 3G/ 2G data for a validity period of 82 days. Notably, this new offer is a part of Idea's unlimited recharge packs for its prepaid users. Alongside the data benefits, subscribers will also get unlimited voice calls and SMS benefits under the new plan. With the Rs. 499 recharge pack, Idea is trying to rival the Rs. 498 Jio recharge that has been offering a total of 182GB of 4G data for 91 days since January. Also, Airtel has a similar Rs. 499 recharge plan that offers 164 GB of data for 82 days.
Idea is giving its prepaid subscribers 2GB of data per day under the Rs. 499 plan, reports TelecomTalk. Once the daily FUP limit is exhausted, the telco will charge 4 paise per 10KB. As mentioned, the plan also features unlimited voice calling benefit. While the offer says 'unlimited', the FUP limit for voice calls is 250 outgoing minutes per day and 1,000 minutes for seven days, post which 1 paisa per second will be charged. Notably, subscribers will be able to make outgoing voice calls to 100 unique numbers in any period of seven consecutive days.
The other benefits of the Idea Rs. 499 offer are free national roaming on its own network, and 100 SMS messages per day. Idea will charge Re. 1 for local SMS and Rs. 1.5 for national SMS when the limit is crossed.
Coming to the Airtel offer, last month the telco had unveiled a recharge pack with 82-day validity and 2GB of daily data allocation for prepaid users. With its Rs. 499 recharge, Airtel has been offering bundled local and STD calls, free roaming, and 100 SMS messages per day, along with 2GB data each day. The operator had also launched a Rs. 558 recharge pack earlier this month. Under the new plan, Airtel is offering a total of 246GB of data and validity of 82 days, that is 3GB data per day. The new pack also includes unlimited voice calls as well as 100 SMS messages per day for the validity.
In contrast, the Rs. 498 pack by Jio is giving 2GB data per day for 91 days. This offers a total of 182GB of 4G data, or simply per GB data at a cost of Rs. 2.73. The Jio pack also includes unlimited voice calls and 100 daily SMS messages. Notably, Jio also had a Rs. 448 recharge plan that offers 2GB of daily data for a period of 84 days.
Catch the latest from the Consumer Electronics Show on Gadgets 360, at our CES 2026 hub.