Airtel and Vi fight for travelers by adding free international roaming to mobile plans

Bharti Airtel has responded to Vi by bundling free international roaming packs with all of its individual and family postpaid plans. Days after Vi announced a similar move to disrupt travel, Airtel updated its tariff options to include a complimentary annual roaming pack across various billing tiers.

Plan Details

Airtel's free international roaming pack offers 5GB of data, 60 minutes of calls, 25 outgoing SMS, and free incoming SMS with a validity of 5 days, and it can be activated once every year per eligible SIM. This benefit covers the individual ₹ 499 plan as well as family plans priced at ₹ 749, ₹ 1049, ₹ 1,249, ₹ 1,449, and ₹ 1,799. Users must have international roaming active on their number and select the pack from the Rewards section in the Airtel app starting October 8. To fund this addition, Airtel tweaked its postpaid tariffs to cost ₹ 50 more per month than previous plans. Existing high-value roaming options like the ₹ 2,999, ₹ 3,999, and ₹ 5,999 packs remain available for longer trips.

Competitor Moves

Vi previously stated its intent to disrupt travel with free international roaming across prepaid and postpaid offerings, claiming savings of up to ₹ 9,000 per year. Vi's offerings include annual prepaid recharges starting at ₹ 3,599, ₹ 3,699, and ₹ 3,999 with a 1GB roaming pack for 5 days, alongside higher-tier ₹ 4,099 and ₹ 4,999 recharges offering a 5GB roaming pack for 5 days. For Vi postpaid users, plans like Vi Max 501 UL, Vi Max 601 UL, and the RedX 1251 plan bundle one to three free roaming packs annually, while family plans extend similar benefits to multiple connections. Meanwhile, Reliance Jio has not yet responded to these roaming bundles.

Context

Telecom operators frequently use value-added perks like streaming subscriptions and travel packs to attract and retain high-value postpaid customers. As competition in the Indian telecom market intensifies, bundling services that were previously sold separately has become a core strategy for differentiation.