In India, as per recent statistics available, there are a miniscule percentage of mobile owners who prefer postpaid connections.  Majority use the prepaid format to stay in touch with their close ones and the world at large. Airtel India, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, is the second largest telecom operator in the country today providing mobile and fixed line telephone services. The company based out of Gurgaon provides broadband and subscription television services too. It was one of the first in the country to introduce the prepaid and postpaid connectivity to Indian mobile subscribers.  Subscribers were required to either do an airtel recharge or pay for their connections on a monthly basis to be able to use the services. While a decade back recharges and payments used to happen at physical stores, today because of digitization, subscribers are able to recharge or pay online using the Airtel website, Airtel App or the website and Apps of resellers like Paytm App, PhonePe App and the MobiKwik App.

As per a TRAI report published in 2018, most telecom operators in the country now have dwindling postpaid subscriber base while their prepaid base continues to grow strongly. 

Customer-friendly prepaid mobile connections are clear-cut winners

There are reasons why the masses prefer the prepaid route compared to the postpaid ones are:-

1. The fundamental difference between prepaid and postpaid is that in the case of the former you pay and then enjoy while in the latter case you use prior to making payments. While the latter sounds good, the ground realities are much different. Prepaid connections are way more affordable vis-a-vis the postpaid ones. And that is exactly the reason why majority of Indian consumers – consisting majorly of middle class and lower middle-class families concentrated in small cities, towns, semi-urban and rural areas – go in for prepaid connections – it suits them perfect. 
2. With prepaid connection, users do not pay for fixed plan charges. They just top-up for a particular airtel recharge value where you either get the full value or a little lesser amount, depending on the recharge plan. They come with fixed validity and there are absolutely no hidden charges.
3. There is flexibility of carrying out an airtel recharge as soon as you consume the entire value. Hence the entire control is in the hands of the user. You want to go in for a higher recharge value – you can do so. If you have money problems or want to limit your call time or online activities, you can recharge in smaller packets and recharge whenever you want to use the connection.
4. You pay for what you use in the prepaid scenario. You want to watch a video, you pay accordingly and watch. Once the data limit is exhausted your account balance will show zero and you would need to recharge again to use the services.
5. Changing from one tariff plan to another is quite an issue with postpaid. Not so for prepaid subscribers. Everytime they recharge, they can choose whichever plan they find suitable. Plus there are many plan choices for prepaid users as compared to postpaid ones.