Kindest cut of all: Vodafone slashes 2G data rates by 80%

Vodafone India has kicked off a rate war in the 2G internet services by cutting the rates by a sharp 80 percent to 2 paise per 10 kb.


The rates as of now are applicable in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, CNBC-TV18 reported. The company plans to roll out the rates nationally in a phased manner, the report said.


Mobile telecom companies have been devising ways to increase mobile internet adoption in India.


Recently, a few companies, including Aircel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India, had used a sachet-model to launch low-cost packs of internet services.The schemes include Re 1 a day to Rs 25 for seven days, a report in the Hindu Business Line said.

“We are seeing adoption of mobile Internet from small towns and cities, but not from the rural areas,” Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer, Aircel, was quoted as saying in the report.

Vodafone had only last week launched a Mobile Internet Bus Campaign, aimed at creating awareness in tier II and tier III cities.


“With this mobile internet bus campaign, we are trying to highlight how Vodafone 2G and 3G plan offerings can help make lives simpler and the fact that Vodafone offers a wide choice of customised affordable mobile internet plans at very competitive rates,” Anuradha Aggarwal, Senior Vice President, Brand Communications and Insights, Vodafone India, was quoted as saying in this report.

The bottomline is that telecom companies have realised that data is where they can earn money in India now. One will have to wait and see how many other telecom firms will be ready to pick up the gauntlet thrown by Vodafone.