The latest recharge packs by popular Telecom companies seem to play for the Nash equilibrium. The various packs are lucrative and hence provide benefits to the company but is it able to satisfy the people’s requirements and how is it possible for a middle-class person to get its value?
Say, for example, there is a prepaid package of Rs.409 by Vodafone-Idea Limited (VIL) or ‘Vi’ which acts as its base price or the first plan and offers 2.5 GB of data, unlimited voice calling, 100 SMS per day along with a Netflix subscription for twenty-eight days. Also, a streaming platform like Disney+Hotstar is made available in addition to a prepaid recharge of Rs.469 respectively.
Similarly, the festive season offers by Airtel India have also brought up packages like Rs. 979 as the base price for eighty-four days which include 2GB data/ day, unlimited calls, and 22+ OTT on Xstream Premium. Subsequently, Reliance Jio has introduced a package with the first plan as Rs.448 which includes 2 GB data per day, unlimited voice calls, and especially the benefit of OTT services like Discovery+, SunNXT, Kanchha Lannka, ZEE5, JioCinema Premium, Lionsgate Play, Planet Marathi, Chaupal, Hoichoi, etc. for twenty-eight days.
However, the affordable capability for such a recharge plan initiative for a middle-class person stands still as per the statistics reported. Even though there is a higher consumption of the OTT industry of 34% (2022-23) in the country, the concept of subscribing to the desired channel alone as well as the selectivity of regional OTT platforms can be an alternative but limiting the ambit of diversity at the same time.
On an important note, the association between the OTT platforms and Telecommunication companies in this presented context is not fruitful which can be remarked as an absurd attempt at capitalisation on the OTT popularity. Therefore, the increase in base prices itself can lead to limitations in watching desirable content for these classes of people which constitute a major part of the nation.