Due to the recent changes in the mobile sector in India, the mobile plans which used to once advertise "lifetime validity" are no longer available. Now, you have to buy validity separately or else you will not even get incoming calls. Thus, it has become frustrating to buy new plans every couple of months. What if there is a plan which gives you validity for an entire year? That is the topic for this article -365 days prepaid mobile plans.
There are indeed some good annual plans available with intense competition in the Telecom sector in India. Currently, all four major players (Airtel, Jio, Vodafone-Idea, BSNL) offers these 365 days plans. And, they are quite good too. So, let's talk about them.
Airtel
Airtel has two 365 day plans.
Rs998 plan - This gives 12GBs of data which you can use whenever you want, unlimited calls and unlimited SMS.
Rs1699 plan - This offers 1.4GB per day of data, unlimited calls and unlimited SMS
Both these plans come with some additional goodies, namely
- 1 year of Amazon Prime subscription,
- Free 4week course on Shaw Academy,
- Airtel TV premium which gives access to ZEE5, HOOQ, 350+ Live TV Channels etc. They claim to give access to 10k+ movies.
- Norton Mobile Security for 1year
- Wynk Music - An app which allows you to listen to unlimited music in their library for free
- If you buy a new 4g device, Airtel offers Rs2000 cashback.
Idea
Idea has three 365day prepaid plans.
Rs 999 plan - It offers 12GB plan along with unlimited calls and unlimited SMS.
Rs1699 plan - It offers 1GB per day along with unlimited calls and SMS. It is expected that this plan will change to 1.5GB per day because of other companies changing their plans fro 1GB per day to 1.5GB per day.
Rs1999 plan - It offers 1.5GB per day with unlimited calls and SMS. It is again expected that this plan will either be improved or else they may cancel this plan. This plan is also only available in few circles namely Kerala circle.
The idea also has a partnership with Citi Bank which means users who have Citi Bank credit card
Vodafone
Vodafone has two 365 day plans
Rs999 plan - It offers unlimited calls and SMS for 365 days along with 12GB of data which you can use anytime
Rs1699 plan - It offers 1GB per day of data along with the usual unlimited calls and SMS. In some circles, this plan has been changed to 1.5GB per day and it is expected that all circles will get upgraded pretty soon
Rs1999 plan - It offers 1.5GB per day for 365 days. Again, this plan is likely to be modified or cancelled pretty soon.
Additionally, you also get Free Live TV, Movies and more through Vodafone Play app in both of these plans.
Jio
Jio has three 365day plans.
Rs 1699 plan - It offers unlimited calls and SMS along with 1.5GB per day of data for one year
Rs4999 plan - It offers 350GB of data for 360days along with unlimited calls and SMS. This plan is not recommended as the only benefit is that you can use this data whenever you want instead of being limited on a per-day basis. However, if we calculate it on per day basis, this amounts to less than 1GB per day while the above plan which costs significantly less at 1.5GB per day.
Rs9999 plan - It offers 750GB data for 360days along with unlimited calls and SMS.
Along with it, you get a complimentary subscription to all JIO apps which includes some apps that give you access to movies, LiveTV and music.
BSNL
BSNL has several 365day plans.
RS 1345 plan - It offers 1.5GB per day data plus additional 10GB reserve data which can be used if you exceed your daily limit. This is a fantastic plan, but BSNL only has a 3G network as their 4G network is still under construction. Weirdly, BSNL does not bundle free calls or SMS with this plan and thus it is a data-only plan. And, it is currently only available in Kerala.
Rs1699 plan - It offers unlimited calls and SMS along with 2GB per day data which will reduce to 80kbps after you cross the limit.
Note - In all of the above plans from all companies, by unlimited SMS, I mean 100sms per day as that is the max limit allowed by TRAI to prevent spam.
So, there you have it. All these plans are excellent if you only use around 1.5GB of day maximum per day or if you use your phone sparsely but still need data sometimes. We have made a comparison of per-day cost with other lower validity plans.
Rs128 per 28days for 2GB data = Rs4.57 per day or Rs1668 per year.
Rs169 per 28days for 1GB per day data = Rs6 per day or Rs2203 per year.
Rs199 per 28days for 1.5GB per day data = Rs7.1 per day or Rs2594 per year.
Rs249 per 28days for 2GB per day data = Rs8.89 per day or Rs3245 per year.
Rs299 per 28days for 2.5GB per day data = Rs10.6 per day or Rs3897 per year.
Rs349 per 28days for 3GB per day data = Rs12.46 per day or Rs4549 per year.
Rs399 per 84days for 1GB per day data = Rs4.75 per day or Rs1733.75 per year.
Rs448 per 82 days for 1.5GB per day data = Rs5.46 per day or Rs 1994 per year.
Rs509 per 90days for 1.4GB per day = Rs5.65 per day or Rs2064 per year.
In comparison, the 365-day prepaid mobile plans costs -
Rs 1699 per 365 days for 1.5GB per day = Rs4.65 per day or Rs1699 per year.
Conclusion
Thus, it makes sense to go for these 365 days plan instead of the other less expensive plans which may cost less but when counted in bulk it costs more and also you will have the trouble of recharging every few months. Going for an annual plan saves you from this trouble. Also, it is mind-boggling that the technology has reached a point where you can get 547GB of wireless 4G data for as low as Rs1699 which is about 25 dollars. This is something which people of other countries can only dream. Think about it for a moment and go for the annual plans.