Now Vodafone too is offering free voice calls in India

India’s telecom carriers may still make most of their revenue from voice calls, but now none of them want to charge you for it.

A day after Airtel, India’s largest telecom carrier, announced plans to make voice calling free for its customers, the second largest carrier in the country, Vodafone has come out with identical plans for its 200 million subscribers.

Vodafone has announced two new tariff plans — one priced at Rs 144 ($2), and the other at Rs 344 ($5) — that will allow subscribers on its network to place nation-wide calls at no charge. Additionally, subscribers who opt for either of the monthly plans will get some free data as well.

The Rs 144 plan offers unlimited voice calls within Vodafone network. Hence, to make use of this plan, a user needs to ensure that the recipient is also a Vodafone subscriber. Additionally, Vodafone is offering 300MB of 4G data to the users with the plan.

The Rs 344 plan is a bit more interesting. It lets users place nation-wide calls for free even when the recipient is not a Vodafone subscriber. The plan also gets them 1GB of free data provided they have a 4G-supported smartphone.

The announcement comes a day after Airtel offered similar plans to its over 260 million subscribers. The aggressive voice calling on two of India’s largest carriers comes roughly three months after India’s largest industrial house, RIL launched Reliance Jio telecom network.

Reliance Jio is offering free voice calls to all its subscribers from day one. To make things worse for incumbent players, Reliance is also offering some free 4G data and access to a bouquet of content services at no charge to its users for six months. Reliance Jio reported earlier this month that it has hit 50 million subscribers on its network.

Reliance Jio’s unprecedented offering left other carriers with little choice but to adjust their offering or risk losing their customers.

"Our hundreds of million customers can remain confidently connected and enjoy talking to their loved ones worry free. Our 4G customers will further enjoy the additional benefit of up to free 1GB data along with unlimited calls,” said Sandeep Kataria, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India, in a press statement.