Airtel, Jio offer ‘queue up recharge plans’ workaround as mobile tariffs to get expensive

Airtel and Jio users can start queueing up recharges ahead of the proposed tariff hike which starts from December 1.

Reliance Jio along with Airtel and Vodafone-Idea to hike prices from December. (Aniruddha Chowdhury/Mint)

Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone-Idea are going to hike mobile tariffs next month. The telcos are expected to hike prices of prepaid and postpaid plans by up to 30%. With only a few days left for the price hike, these telcos are now offering a compensation for its prepaid customers by allowing them to queue up recharge plans.

Airtel and Jio customers can queue recharge plans ahead of the price hike, Telecom Talk confirmed. This essentially means that Airtel and Jio users can purchase a recharge plan in advance even if they have one active right now. Once the present recharge plan's validity is over the upcoming one will get activated. This way users have can save up on at least one recharge plan ahead of the telecom price hike.

Here's how Airtel and Jio users can queue up recharge plans.

Airtel

Airtel users who are eligible to queue recharge plans should be on the unlimited combo plan. To do this, one simply needs to purchase a recharge plan as they normally do and it will automatically be queued up. This can be done via the Airtel Thanks app and other recharge portals as well. Once the recharge is done, Airtel users will see details of their present plan and the upcoming one as well. In addition to monthly recharge plans, Airtel is also offering the ₹1,699 yearly plan under its queuing scheme.

Jio

The same procedure applies for Jio users as well but this telco has a clearer presentation of it. Jio customers will find this option under My Plans section in the MyJio app. Here, users will see the queued plan under their active recharge plan. Users can tap on the 'activate' button to queue up their next recharge plan.