Airtel Data, Voice Tariff Raised By 50% For These Postpaid Users: Will Jio Also Hike Tariff?

Bharti Airtel is the first to take the plunge – the company has announced a price hike in its postpaid plans, and the hike is as much as 50%.

The last time that there was a price hike by Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea was in December 2019. However, this price hike was for the prepaid plans. 

Bharti Airtel Initiates Price Hike For Prepaid Users

The price hike introduced by Bharti Airtel is at 50% and in the enterprise segment, which makes up for 60% of the company’s postpaid users. 

As per industry estimates, the overall postpaid market is worth around Rs 22,000 crore in revenue terms, making up for 15% of the sector’s revenues, and 5% of the sector’s active subscribers. 

Bharti Airtel is the second largest telecom operator of India and postpaid users make up for only 5% of the total subscriber base of the company. However, these users contribute around 20% in terms of revenues and are high Arpu users.

As per reports, the average revenue per user (Arpu) of the company will now see an increase because of the price hike. Airtel had recorded the highest Arpu in the industry by the end of the March quarter. 

There is a fiercely close competition between Airtel and Jio, as per the research wing of Domestic credit rating agency Crisil, the active subscriber base of Jio’s share is 33.7 per cent and Airtel’s at 33.6 per cent. 

It was reported earlier that any unanimous tariff hike seems improbable in 2021-22 as neither one is ready to bow out and be the expensive provider. 

Raising the tarriff can be perceived as a smart or a cautious move of Airtel, despite Jio’s disinterest in not taking the first step towards increasing prices.

Airtel’s New And Revised Plans

For the enterprise customers, the entry-level Rs 199 monthly plan as well as the Rs 249 plan have been discontinued by Bharti Airtel and these plans will now start at Rs. 299.

Whereas, for retail customers, the starting plan will continue to be available at Rs. 399 per month, but the Rs. 749 family plan will be discontinued. The other family plan which is priced at Rs. 999 per month will now become the starting plan. In this plan, the number of sim cards that will be provided has been reduced from four to three. 

The company has stated that the customers who used the Rs. 749 plan  can still go for the Rs. 399 plan and get an add on connection for Rs. 299. And similar combinations can be availed on all the other plans.

On the plus side, data has been increased from 180 GB a month to 210 GB. The add-on sim has also been increased from Rs.  249 to Rs 299. However, the monthly plan has been increased from 10 GB to 30 GB.