Is Airtel's Postpaid Plan a Good or Bad Deal For You?

If you are an airtel subscriber, chances are you do not know that airtel now offers a post-paid plan - or maybe be you've heard, but you may not have adequate knowledge about how it works, so we decided to take a closer look at the airtel's post-paid service plan and we were able to come up with these details. 

First, airtel pinpoints these "four" things as the selling point. 

> Extra value for money. 

> No need for constant airtime top-up. 

> No abrupt call drop. 

> Zero hassle to join, only requires NIN.

As you read on, you'll see what we think of these claims, if indeed airtel delivers what they promised. 

Let's explore together - Then you can make up your mind. 

Below, in the quoted section, is the information that airtel puts up on their web portal about their post-paid service. Right below it, we did a breakdown to help you understand how this actually works. 

"If you've always wanted a post-paid line but think it's expensive and difficult to manage, then you will absolutely love our new Ready Go Post-paid Starter Pack SIM. It's a ready-to-use post-paid SIM designed to suit just your lifestyle. Ready Go Starter Pack SIM is so easy to buy, quick to activate and simple to use. The Airtel Ready-Go Post-paid is a new hybrid post-paid plan for customers who desire a stress-free post-paid experience. This plan frees you from the hassles that come with regular post-paid packages and gives you flexibility to manage your bills anywhere you are.

The starter pack goes for only N3000 and comes with #3000 worth of benefits that allows you do anything on your phone – Local and international calls, SMS and Data. Dial *200# to migrate to Ready Go post-paid for free and start enjoying unbeatable rates on local and international calls, data and sms. Unlike other post-paid plans, documentation is not required and itemized bills are provided every 5th of the new month. With the Ready-Go Post-paid Plan, you get:

• · Calls at 11k/s to all networks
• · Cheaper SMS rate
• · Affordable call rates to 5 International countries (Canada, China, UK, USA and India)
• · Low DATA rate

Also, you can buy Ready-Go Bundle at affordable rate.

• · Ready Go 3000
• · Ready Go 5000
• · Ready Go 10000

To get started, dial *200# after doing your SIM registration (KYC) and follow the prompts on your phone and you're Ready to GO!"

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Here's Our Breakdown Of This Plan

So, airtel has what they call the "3 in 1 Monthly Combo Plans" let's break it all down for you.

The above table shows exactly what airtel offers with their post-paid plan.

Let's dive a little deeper.

The first plan is known as "Value" and it goes for #3,000 monthly. 

What does it offer?

Value:- as part of the airtel's post-paid plan offers of course the basic mobile communication services that anyone would require, such as sms, calls, and internet data.

As stated above, this plan would cost you a total of #3,000 and with this offer, you'll get the following. 

1. 100 minutes to make local and international calls to countries that are covered in the airtel's post-paid plan. 

2. By default, all of the plans come with only 100 sms bundle. Same goes for this plan as well. 

3. 10GB internet data to surf the web, watch videos and make downloads.

Now, let's look at the second plan.

Gold:- Airtel calls this plan the "Gold" post-paid plan - Here's what it offers. 

This plan would cost you #5,000 to activate on a monthly basis and comes with the following features. 

1. 300 minutes to make local and international calls to all countries that are covered in the post-paid package.

2. The plan comes with 20GB data to browse the internet and serve all your day to day internet connectivity needs.

3. As usual, this plan also comes with 100 units of sms to text friends, relatives or whoever you'd want to send an sms to. 

Lastly, the platinum plan - What does this last plan offer? 

Known as the "Platinum" plan, airtel offers a slightly increased feature in terms of volume with this package. 

Let's see what they offer, and is it worth it?

1. 50GB data for internet connectivity needs.

2. 750 voice minutes to call local lines and supported countries in the airtel post-paid package. 

3. 100 sms units to text loved ones and anyone.

Our Review & Verdicts. 

Let us begin with the value plan, is it worth the price, is any of these plans worth the price-tag?

Value:- Which offers 100 minutes of voice calls, if we are to go by calculation, most average people would exhaust that in one day. 

How? 60 minutes makes one 1hour right? Don't many of us make more than one hour of call on a daily basis? With a recharge card of 250-300 using Mtn network on the mpulse tariff plan, you can literally make up to 1hour 40minute call. But this is what airtel is selling for as high as #3,000. We think it's a rip off.

So, in case you don't know, 100 minutes is airtel's fancy way of saying you're buying 1hour 40minutes voice plan. 

Secondly, still on the "value" plan, airtel offers 10GB for net surfing. With the way Nigerian MNO's are zapping data, it is clear that 10GB will hardly carry you through a week or two.

(See This Post For a Full Breakdown)

Lastly, 100 sms, we don't need to repeat this as anthem on each of the package reviews, although not many people are big on traditional text messaging, so it would have been fair if airtel focused more on increasing the data and call volume.

Gold package:- With this post-paid plan that cost #5,000. What you get is 5 hours of talk-time in a whole 30 days month.

The question is, can you manage 5 hours to make calls for a whole month? When you can make more than one hour of calls per day. 

Also, this plan comes with 20GB internet data for net surfing and 100 sms unit.

If you're a minimal internet surfer, maybe this can work for you. This makes one to wonder, who is this post-paid plan targeted at? 

The average mobile phone user with low budget can't afford to pay this much for internet connection, while the talk-time may be appealing to some people, it may not be quite convincing enough.

Platinum:- Costing 10,000naira, what you'll get is 12.5 hours of monthly talk-time or voice package, 50GB to connect the internet.

While some of you may spend way more than that on data alone on a monthly basis, it may be tempting to jump on this deal since it comes with a voice plan and sms units.

But before you do, ensure you are very certain about the hours you burn on calls per month, how much that would probably cost you, if you add that to your data cost, what's your total cost? 

You also have to look at whether you actually need much of that talk-time voice package or are you more of a mobile messenger and video or over the internet call person now. 

These days, since most apps can make clear calls over the internet to connect anyone who has the same app, more people are comfortable using over the internet voice call services.

For the prices above, you can get a better deal if you were in 1st world countries like UK, US, Australia and the likes. Not only will a plan costing such amount cover for calls and texting, some network providers would even include cable services or streaming services as part of your package.

Considering all these, we honestly think the Airtel Post-paid plan is not worth it, it's a rip off.