Airtel Discontinues ₹249 Prepaid Plan Offering 1GB Daily Data With 24-Day Validity

Airtel Discontinues ₹249 Prepaid Plan: Airtel on Wednesday discontinued one of its popular prepaid recharge plans in India. Priced at Rs 249, it was the telecom operator’s entry-level recharge pack that offered daily high-speed internet, unlimited calls, 100 SMS messages per day and more.

Now users will have to recharge with a slightly higher priced plan to get similar benefits. Notably Airtel is the second telecom operator in India to discontinue the Rs 249 prepaid recharge plan, after Reliance Jio.

Airtel’s move follows Jio’s similar decision. The Mukesh Ambani company has quietly discontinued its Rs 249 plan which offered 1 GB of daily data, unlimited calls and other benefits. “Effective 00:00 hours, 20th Aug 2025, recharge 249 will be discontinued,” an announcement on the Airtel Thanks app stated.

Also Read: Shreyas Iyer Faces Deja Vu as Asia Cup Snub Leaves India Star Out in Cold Again

The Rs 249 plan on both Airtel and Jio was the entry-level prepaid pack most preferred by millions of subscribers. The plan’s discontinuation will force the customers of both the telecom operators to opt for more expensive plans within the prepaid portfolio.

Though Airtel has not announced any direct replacement for the discontinued Rs 249 plan, the move indicates a paradigm shift by two of the biggest telecom operators in the country by forcing their subscribers to choose longer duration or higher value recharge packs.

Jefferies, a brokerage firm, in a note said that tariff tweaks by Jio and Airtel are designed to encourage heavier data consumption. By nudging customers from 1.5GB to 2GB daily usage, ARPU could rise by 4-8% in a revenue neutral way, the firm estimated.

Also Read: Aamir Khan Pays Heartfelt Tribute as 3 Idiots Co-Star Achyut Potdar Dies at 91

Jefferies sees this as a positive signal for subscriber monetisation and has reiterated Bharti Airtel as its top pick in the sector with a target price of ₹2,500 a share.

For customers this means fewer affordable short term options especially for those who were using the ₹249 plan for budget friendly connectivity. For the industry this means a uniform tariff across operators reducing the incentive for price sensitive users to switch operators.

Also Read: India ‘Reselling, Profiteering From Russian Oil’: Top US Official Explains Why China Escaped Tariffs