Airtel, Vodafone Idea offer sops to take on Jio in rural markets

Battlelines have been drawn in small towns and rural markets where telcos Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (VIL) have unleashed a strategy to rein in customer losses and counter the popularity of Reliance Jio Infocomm’s 4G feature phone in the fight for the next 350 million data subscribers.

With competition easing in the metros, Airtel and VIL are doling out juicy incentives to retailers by way of higher margins and lump sum cash payouts in the Rs 7,000-8,000 range for selling high-value recharges and maximising data customer activations.