A day after Vodafone India has announced steep cut in 2G prices by 80 per cent, Bharti Airtel also slashed data usage charges by 90 per cent for pre-paid subscribers in Punjab and Haryana.

The telecom provider announced that the Volume Based Charges (VBC) on its recharge vouchers for 2G data usage of three denominations have been reduced to 1 paisa per 10 KB from 10 paisa per 10 KB making internet usage affordable for its subscribers.

The recharge vouchers of Rs 22, Rs 25 and Rs 125 carry a free download limit of 125 MB for five days, 150 MB for seven days and 1 GB for 28 days.

After the free download, the customers were presently charged at 10 paisa per 10 KB which have been reduced to 1 paisa per 10 KB with immediate effect, Airtel said in a statement.

The validity of the Rs 22 and Rs 25 recharge vouchers has been increased to 30 days and that of Rs 125 recharge vouchers increased to 90 days.

Recently, Vodafone reduced the data charges by 80 per cent for its pre-paid and post-paid customers in Karnataka, UP West and Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh circles for both pre-paid and post-paid customers using the 2G network.