Within days of Vodafone India and Bharti Airtel cutting 2G data charges by more than 80%, India's fourth-largest mobile phone company by subscribers Idea Cellular on Thursday slashed data charges by 90%, triggering a new tariff war.
Idea Cellular revised data tariff for its pre-paid and post-paid customers in eight circles of Tamil Nadu and Chennai, Karnataka, Kolkata, West Bengal, Assam, North East, Bihar and Orissa. Customers will pay only 2 paise for using 10 kb (kilobyte) of data instead of the earlier rate of 2 paise per kb data, for 90 days beginning July 1.
Earlier this week, Bharti Airtel slashed 2G data charges by 90% in nine circles of UP east, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, Kolkata, Punjab and Orissa from 10 paise per 10 kb to 1 paisa per 10 kb.
The changes are applicable for pre paid customers using recharge vouchers of Rs 22,Rs 25 and Rs 125 that will be valid for three months. Vodafone India cut tariff by 80% in Karnataka, UP West and Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh from 10 paise per 10 kb to 2 paise per 10 kb in order to 'make internet access affordable for customers who use mobile internet in a limited way'. However, each telco has implemented this change only on pay-as-you-go basis which means that the tariffs kick in only after users exhaust their free data usage limits.
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