Paytm chief ’s tweet starts war among telcos
Rivalry among telecom players was turned live by the Paytm chief on Twitter when he sought more data from his service provider, Airtel, but ended up getting a better offer from Reliance Jio.
Payments platform Paytm chief Vijay Shekhar Sharma on Sunday tweeted a screen shot of his Airtel mobile application and said, “Here is that surprise data offer in app, yet not active, ... that's 6GB while need was of 20-30 GB!” Earlier in the day, he approached Airtel on Twitter to seek more information about a reported ~549 plan that offers 1 GB data limit every day.
Sharma said on his Twitter account he called the Airtel customer care and got 60 GB a month data-use option in place of the current 15 GB monthly usage limit on the ~2,999 plan. Replying to this, Reliance Jio offered him 56GB mobile broadband plan for ~499. “@vijayshekhar Ab
aur koi nahi (Now no one else)...#Jio karo! (Do Jio) Why pay 2999 when u can get 56GB @499 without calling us,” Jio tweeted.
Sharma agreed to accept its offer. “Now that you have said it, will get a #jio life flavour soon :-) @reliancejio,” Sharma said.
Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal reached out to post-paid subscribers to offer more data to them from March 13, which they could access through their mobile applications. “We are sending some free data your way, so that you can enjoy India's fastest mobile network a little more. You will be able to enjoy this surprise starting March 13th by logging onto My Airtel app,” Vittal said in his email to subscribers.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Jio reached out to its customers asking them to register for Jio Prime, which will offer additional free data of up to 10 GB and add on services worth ~301 on the existing plans if they recharge before March 31 for ~499 or above.
Last month, Ambani had launched Prime offer and had said his company would offer 20 per cent more data than the bestselling plan of its competitors for the same price.