Airtel’s Unlimited Free Calling + Data Packs (145, 350) Have THESE Limits

Bharti Airtel announced new plans to stay competitive with Reliance Jio’s Prime offering. The new plans are offered in 2 flavors priced close to Rs. 145 and Rs. 350 respectively (the exact amount varies from circle to circle). Airtel offers free unlimited Airtel-to-Airtel calls & 2GB of data for Rs. 145. The Rs. 350 plan comes with unlimited Local+ STD calls & unlimited 4G data for 28 days. However, the plans are full of ambiguity and the term ‘unlimited’ actually has a lot of limits. Read on before you subscribe to one of the plans.

*MRP varies from circle to circle. Please refer to the table at the end of this article to know the exact recharge amount for your telecom circle.

Limits on Free ‘Unlimited’ Calls

Call it fair use or Airtel’s attempt to fool and earn additional revenues, but the voice calling has a bunch of limits. You’re only allowed x minutes of voice calls per day or per week. If you exceed the limit you’ll be charged for all the additional calls you make. Here are the details:

For Rs. 145 Plan

You’re allowed to make 1200 minutes of local/STD Airtel to Airtel calls every week. The daily limit is also set at a maximum of 300 minutes per day. If that wasn’t enough, there is a limit of 100 unique mobile numbers every week.

Clearing that further, you can only make calls to a maximum of 300 minutes in 1 day, while not exceeding a maximum of 1200 minutes in 7 days. That’s a lot of calling, but still not ‘unlimited’ as the company promotes it.

If you exceed the limits, you’ll be charged at 10p/minute for the remaining hours or days. You cannot make free voice calls while you’re roaming.

For Rs. 350 Plan

The Rs. 350 plan also follows a similar fashion. You are allowed a maximum of 1200 minutes of local/STD/Airtel-to-Airtel calls in a week. The daily limit is also set at a maximum of 300 minutes. Similarly, you cannot make calls to more than 100 different mobile numbers in a week.

If you exceed the limits, the calls will be charged at 30p/minute for the remaining days/hours. You also cannot make free voice calls while you’re roaming.

Limits of Free ‘Unlimited’ 4G Data

The Rs. 145 plan does not offer unlimited data, so it is all okay. You get 2GB of data which you can use evenly during the plan validity of 28 days. However, you only get 2GB of data if you have a 4G handset. In case you do not, you will only get 500MB of 2G/3G data.

Talking of the Rs. 350 Plan, again the offer is only valid on 4G handsets. You will only get 500MB of 2G/3G data if you do not have a 4G handset. Also, 1 GB per day is divided evenly as 500 MB for the day and 500 MB for the night (12 AM – 6 AM).

Our Verdict

The limits on calls seem pretty fair to avoid commercial use of the services. Limits make sure that the service is not degraded for everybody due to abuse by a few subscribers. A normal user will be very much happy with the calling limits.

Data limits, on the other hand, seem quite unfair. Airtel should’ve offered flat 1GB per day without bringing in the day/night clause. The subscriber should be allowed to use the entire 1GB at any point of the day. However, the offering is still goo enough and the allotted 500MB is more than enough for casual internet usage (which most of the subscribers do).

Also, Airtel should mention these limits clearly while promoting. The customers should not be needed to dig into the T&C documents to find out the limits & hidden clauses.

Recharge Amount to Subscribe to these Plans

Refer to the table below to find out the exact recharge denomination for your telecom circle. As per the current information, you can only subscribe to these plans on or before 31st of March 2017. Once subscribed, you will continue to avail the benefits of the same plan (till March 2017) as long as you continue to recharge with the same amount every month.