Postpaid plans are overrated because prepaid plans can fulfil the demands of an average user very comfortably. If you are subscribing to a postpaid plan, you are shelling out more money than you need to. The entry-level postpaid plans from Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) all come for Rs 399 per month. Now that’s a staggering amount to pay for a mobile subscription every month to get unlimited calling, fair-usage-policy (FUP) data, and 100 SMS/day. I consider it to be a staggering amount because you could get all of these benefits for much less with a prepaid plan. Sure, with the prepaid plans, you don’t get all the over-the-top (OTT) benefits that you do with the postpaid plans; still, they are not worth it for a majority of the subscribers.
More than 90% of Subscribers in India are Prepaid Users
According to an earlier report from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), 95.35% of mobile users in India were prepaid subscribers at the end of March 31, 2020. So I guess a lot of people already understand what they need. This is for the small percentage of people who don’t. Airtel is targeting businesses and institutions largely to provide its postpaid offerings. The telco’s aim is not the normal users because it understands, they don’t need a postpaid plan. This is the same reason why Jio’s postpaid plans couldn’t make a huge impact on the market because not a lot of consumers care about it or need it. Mobile users want cheap data with unlimited voice calling and 100 SMS/day for as long as possible. That is why the 84 days and 56 days prepaid plans are very popular in India. Whereas postpaid plans are suitable for companies to provide their employees with a cellular connection. That way, the companies don’t have to pay upfront to the telcos and don’t have to worry about data or any of the benefits expiring for their employees. So there’s really no big argument here; postpaid plans are very over-rated, especially the ones that cost more than Rs 500 per month. No basic mobile user would ever need them. A lot of consumers nowadays have Wi-Fi connections in their homes; thus they only need a handful of 4G or mobile data when they step outside. For that need, they definitely don’t want a postpaid connection.
