Bharti Airtel on Sunday said it would offer a recharge pack of Rs 49 for free to as many as 5.5 crore low income customers to help them stay connected during the pandemic.
Additionally, customers buying the Rs 79 recharge coupon will now get double the benefits, the company said.
The Rs 49-pack offers a talktime of Rs 38 and 100 MB data for 28 days.
On Friday, Reliance Jio said it would offer 300 free minutes, or 10 minutes per day, of outgoing calls per month to those Jio users who have failed to recharge because of the pandemic. In addition, users under the JioPhone plan who have recharged will get an additional recharge plan of the same value for free.
Bharti said the scheme was worth Rs 270 crore, covering credit of the Rs 49 mobile plan.
Both benefits — under the Rs 49- and the Rs 79-pack — will be available for Airtel pre-paid customers in the coming week, the company said.
Data show 97.5 per cent of all Airtel subscribers active against 78.2 per cent of Jio, which is joining hands with Reliance Foundation for its scheme.
Analysts said the foundation will partly fund the 300 minutes of free outgoing Jio calls. It is learnt that Reliance’s CSR activities are largely done by the foundation. Jio has seen a sharp drop in its average revenue per user in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal to Rs 138 per user from 151 in the third quarter.