India’s second largest telco Bharti Airtel has revamped its international roaming offerings under the newly launched WorldPass which enables IR services in 184 countries. Until now, telcos had different offerings and packs for different countries.
As the worst effects of the COVID-19 pandemic ebb, there has been a massive surge in international travel both for work and leisure. India has seen the number of international travellers this year ..
The World Pass works seamlessly across 184 countries meaning a customer with a layover at an international airport or travelling to two or more countries can use one plan for the entire trip.
The telcos said that this change comes after extensive customer research it conducted that showed that many customers find international roaming packs in general confusing across the whole global telco industry.
As a result, many are not connected when they want to be. Or they seek complex alternatives of temporary connections abroad.
Shashwat Sharma, director consumer business, Bharti Airtel said, “At Airtel, our mission is to solve customer problems so that our experience speaks for itself. The feedback that we have heard on international travel related concerns has compelled us to launch a defining proposition for our customers – the Airtel World Pass. This offers our customers one pack for the globe, significantly greater value, allows them to control what they use on the app and allows for emergency data usage long after the pack allowance is over.”
“As a matter of fact, our new plans offer significantly better value than travel or local sims in most countries,” he added.
The pass also gives customers access to a 24X7 Call centre support from any corner of the world free of cost on call and WhatsApp.
Airtel has also introduced special packs for long stay/frequent travellers in both prepaid and postpaid categories. The long term plan (postpaid) offers a validity of 1 year. The packs start at Rs 649 for both postpaid and prepaid customers and go up to Rs 14999 for postpaid, and Rs 2997 in case of prepaid.
In addition, customers will have unlimited data available for emergency usage and messaging applications. Customers can manage their international roaming needs on the Airtel Thanks app, with updates on usage, billing amount or addition of data or minutes as needed.
SOURCE: The Economic Times