Reliance Jio’s new family postpaid plan, at a monthly charge of ₹174 per connection, is set to delay tariff hikes and heat up the competition in the postpaid segment, where it lags behind Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

For a family of four, the company is offering a plan where the main member pays ₹399 per month and gets three add-on connections at ₹99 per SIM, effectively working out to a combined bill of ₹696 per month. In a bid to attract users, RJio is offering the plan free for a month as a trial.

The new tariff plans are at a 17-30 per cent discount to its existing plans and 30 per cent cheaper than Airtel’s base family plan of ₹999 (combined) with four connections. However, RJio’s base plan is more expensive per GB, though it introduced an unlimited data plan at ₹599.

RJio’s base family plan offers 75 GB of data and no OTT subscriptions. Compare this with Airtel’s ₹999 family plan, where users get more data at 100 GB plus an addition of 30 GB for each extra connection and OTT subscriptions. Vi’s base plan comes for ₹699 with two connections and total 80 GB data with OTT subscriptions and Vi Movies thrown in.

This will impact the telecom sector by intensifying competition and delay in tariff hikes.

There were expectations to bolster their profitability margins, telecom operators would be raising tariffs in the postpaid segment.