Vodafone India has introduced a bundled voice and data pre-paid service, designed to simplify varying voice and data pre-paid options for its customers.
The pre-paid product, Vodafone Flex, is aimed at a wider mobile customer base including those who currently don't have 4G phones, said Sandeep Kataria, Director of Commercial, Vodafone India, noting that pre-paid customers make up about 90 per cent of India's current mobile customer base. The bundled units, called Flexes, will start from Rs 119.
The new service, Vodafone Flex, will work as a "new currency" allowing customers to purchase combined units of bundled, voice, data and roaming units, avoiding multiple recharges and multiple SIMS – a common hassle for India's prepaid mobile customers, said Kataria.
Kataria claimed the new pre-paid service, which is in addition to the company's existing pre-paid products, would provide its customers savings of about 25 per cent compared to individual purchases of plans.
Asked about recent competition from RelianceJio's free voice service, Kataria said the company welcomes competition but pointed to "caveats" in RJio's claims of free voice offers.
"It comes with a lot of of caveats and conditions...there are several asterisks with the voice plans," said Kataria when asked Jio's recent plans.
He added the company was competing on aspects other than just tariffs.
"We offer a little bit more than tariff," he said. "Tariff is not a long-term differentiator."