Vodafone RED user experience and review
Vodafone RED is a new postpaid plan released by the company. The plan offers users an option to get some specific calls and data for free. In this article, I am sharing my experience with the RED plan and it's services.
Prior to Vodafone RED, I was using the company SIM that had the fixed monthly calls plan. And the company plan had no additional charges for the 2GB of data transfer. The plan however was linked only to the office number. So I was in search of a good postpaid plan for my personal usage. I decided to give RED a try before finalizing my number. There was option to try either postpaid package for family or solo for RED. And I decided to go with the solo Postpaid plan of RED within Maharashtra region.
The documentation and other formal process are pretty much the same like any other plan. There is nothing specific and additional documentation required from your part. What's the Deal of RED?
The focus of this plan is more on the voice calls. The plan does not offer much of an Internet data. For example, the base plan offers 512 MB of Internet Data and the upgrades are within 200 Rs incremental value. However even with higher plans, you may not get much Internet data, as each upgraded plan offers additional 1 GB data only. So it is pretty much clear that the focus of the plan is on voice calls. Each RED plan also increases the message capacity with higher plans. However if you rely more on Internet data then you may not find much benefit from upgrade. Free Benefits?
RED was launched to retain customers who use voice calls and SMS. Each plan within RED offers you some specific amount of voice calls. You are allowed to make national and local calls within specific limit without any charge. There is no network specific limit set as of yet. However you have number of minutes limit set for each upgraded plan within RED. The problem here is that with messengers such WhatsApp and Telegram, the amount of SMS we send have reduced a lot lately. Also Internet data being very limited means you may run out of the bandwidth quickly. Also the additional data is priced at very expensive rate. That could be one problem for those who use their smartphones for sending large files. 
In such case you may benefit from data specific plans instead of RED. There are some of the 3G and 4G plans worth checking out if you're thinking of using Vodafone for data based usage. Do note that unless you buy data card plans, you may not be getting reasonable cost for the data. Vodafone has tried it's best to attract users who have both voice and data requirements. However Vodafone has ignored the premise where you can find smartphone user consuming more than 1 GB data per month.
RED plans are designed for those who use the phone more for the voice calls. It gives you option to choose from prepaid or postpaid for billing. You can get this connection by either switching from existing plan or by applying for new connection. You can do this change from the Vodafone app installed on your device. If you applied for new connection, then it may take some time depending on documentation processing. Depending on the state from which you're applying for the RED connection, the offers will be different. Also the SMS rates per state are different. So the prices for voice and SMS are set based on regional operator limits.
If you compare this plan with other custom plans offered by company, then you may not find much difference in terms of cost saving. Though company claims you save more with RED plans, but I didn't find any such difference in savings. Is it worth it?
My personal experience with the RED plan is not that good as my dependency is on Internet data. However this plan may benefit those who want both data and voice calls at reasonable rate. In such case Vodafone RED can be a good plan for some customers.
