Indian private telecom operators including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea may increase the prices of their prepaid plans yet again by Diwali 2022, suggests a new report. The new hike would cost prepaid tariffs to go up by 10-12 per cent. The three telecom operators had previously increased the prices of its prepaid plans back in November 2021.
The report, spotted first by ET Telecom, comes from Mayuresh Joshi, head of equity research at the Indian unit of US equity research firm, William O’ Neil & Co. It suggested that telcos would go for another 10-12 per cent hike, boosting the ARPU (average revenue per user)to Rs 200, Rs 185 and Rs 135 for Airtel, Jio and Vodafone Idea respectively.
As per the report, Vi’s low paying 2G customers are hurting the telco’s revenues, and strategies must be made to not just attract new customers, but also push legacy network users to upgrade to 4G services.
Airtel, Jio, Vi hiked prices by 20-25 per cent in 2021
In November 2021, Airtel and Vodafone Idea announced that the telcos would be increasing prepaid tariffs by up to 20-25 per cent, a move that was soon also matched by Reliance Jio. Popular low-tier plans like the Rs 79 plan went up to Rs 99, while higher-tier plans saw a price increase of up to three digits. Airtel’s 2GB per day plan with 84 days validity went up from Rs 698 to Rs 839 post the hike.
Data boosters that cost Rs 48, Rs 98 and Rs 251 for 3GB, 12GB and 50GB respectively, were also priced at Rs 58, Rs 118 and Rs 301 after the hike. Airtel had said in a statement at the time that the higher ARPU would help the telco to “enable substantial investments required in networks and spectrum” and also roll out 5G services in the country.
Meanwhile, Reliance Jio’s hiked prices, which went into effect a few days later from December 1, 2021, still offered lower prices in popular plans compared to Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
