Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea will introduce revised mobile service tariffs with rate increases ranging from 10-24 percent starting the first week of July.
Bharti Airtel announced a 10-21 percent hike in prepaid and postpaid mobile tariffs starting July 3, just a day after its larger rival Reliance Jio announced a rate increase.
Later in the day, loss-making telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) also announced its plan to raise mobile tariffs by 11-24 percent starting July 4.
However, Vi has not made any changes to several of its plans, including the Rs 1,799 and Rs 3,099 plans with 365 days validity, as well as some of the data add-on packs.
Bharti Airtel stated that the mobile Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) needs to exceed Rs 300 to maintain a financially healthy business model for telcos in India. “We have ensured that there is a very modest price increase (less than 70 paise per day) on entry-level plans to avoid burdening budget-challenged consumers,” Airtel said while announcing the revision of its mobile tariffs.
The tariff hikes from mobile operators come immediately after the 10th spectrum auction, which ended in just two days with a muted response from the industry. Jio, India’s largest telecom operator, announced a 12-27 percent hike in mobile tariffs on Thursday. However, a comparison of the tariff and rate hikes announced by the two telcos shows that most of Airtel’s mobile plans will still cost more than Jio’s. PTI