Reliance Jio effect: Vodafone refreshes Rs 47 prepaid plan to offer massive benefitsJuly 26 (AZINS) In an effort to compete with Reliance Jio, Vodafone has now refreshed its prepaid plan for Rs 47.

The new plan will offer 125 minutes of local and STD voice calling, along with 50 local and national SMS messages, and 500MB of 3G/ 4G data. The validity period of the plan is 28 days. Earlier, this pack would 1GB of 3G/4G data with a validity period of one day, without any calling or SMS benefits.

Recently, the Department of Telecom gave conditional nod for merger of these companies on July 9 and asked companies to meet the demand raised for taking merger on record. The combined operations of Idea and Vodafone will create the country's largest telecom operator worth over USD 23 billion (or over Rs 1.5 lakh crore), with a 35 per cent market share and a subscriber base of around 430 million.

The merger is expected to give breather to both debt-ridden firms Idea and Vodafone, from cut-throat competition in the market where margins have hit rock bottom with free voice calls. It will have the capacity to provide 4G spectrum in all telecom circles of the country. According to a presentation by Idea, the combined 4G spectrum of both the companies are capable of offering up to 450 megabit per second broadband speed on mobile phones in 12 Indian markets.

With the new entity coming in force, Bharti Airtel will lose the tag of India's biggest telecom service provider to the new entity. The combined debt of both the companies is estimated to be around Rs 1.15 lakh crore.