Airtel silently slashed the price of Airtel 4G Hotspot to compete against Reliance’s JioFi. Prior to this price cut, the hotspot device was available at Rs. 1,500 but now it will be available at Rs. 999. Earlier, Airtel didn’t confirm the price cut but now Airtel has sent out a press statement saying that the Airtel 4G Hotspot will now retail for just Rs. 999, and the price cut will be Permanent.
In contrast to, we would like to add that Reliance JioFi is also available at Rs. 999. Recently, a report about Datacard market share in India showed that Reliance is leading the charts. Reliance Industries is the leading in the data card segment because of strong sales of JioFi hotspot devices in the second quarter of 2017. However, in the third quarter of 2017, the percentage declined quite a bit. So in this situation, Airtel is trying to compete with Reliance by slashing the price of its 4G Hotspot.
Ajai Puri, Chief Operating Officer, Bharti Airtel quoted:
“At Airtel, we endeavor to deliver great value to our customers backed by a superior network experience. Airtel 4G Hotspot delivers a superior multi-device online experience, wherever the customer may be, by leveraging Airtel’s pan-India high-speed data network. What’s more, it now comes at a great price with some very affordable plans that offer large bundles of data.”
Airtel 4G Hotspot :
Airtel’s 4G Hotspot is available at all Airtel retail stores and It will be soon available to purchase from Amazon India as well. Airtel 4G Hotspot is manufactured by Huawei and It allows users to connect up to 10 devices at the same time. Inside this, there is 1500mah battery which Airtel claims to deliver 6 hours of battery life.
It is also capable of switching to 3G or 2G network automatically depending on the 4G network availability in a particular area. In order to use the Airtel 4G hotspot, users have to purchase an Airtel 4G SIM to activate services. The plans for the device starts at Rs 499/month and goes up to Rs 12000 for a yearly pack.
Airtel 4G Hotspot vs Reliance JioFi:
In terms of specifications, Airtel didn’t clearly mention the technical specification whereas JioFi specification is clearly mentioned on their official site. If we see the battery part, Airtel 4G Hotspot sports a 1500mah battery and JioFi sports 2300mah battery. Clearly, on the basis of battery capacity, JioFi has an upper hand.
On the other hand, Airtel 4G Hotspot can connect to 10 devices at a time though JioFi does the same. Yet, JioFi can connect up to 32 devices but it’s recommended to connect up to 10 devices. The main advantage of JioFi is that you can make HD voice calls even on a 2G/3G device. Just simply install the Jio4GVoice app for free from Google Play Store.
Also, Have a look at Best Airtel 4G Prepaid Tariff Plans Available Right Now for the Users