Bharti Airtel announces ‘modest hike’ in tariffs to be effective from July 3

The country’s second largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel has announced a hike in mobile tariffs a day after Reliance Jio hiked tariffs. Airtel will hike its plans by as much as 10-21 percent.

Sunil Bharti Mittal’s telecom firm said it will revise mobile tariffs from July 3 with a ‘very modest’ price increase of less than 70 paise per day on entry-level plans.

“Airtel will also revise its mobile tariffs… from July 3rd, 2024. We have ensured that there is a very modest price increase (less than 70p per day) on the entry level plans, in order to eliminate any burden on budget challenged consumers,” Bharti Airtel said in a regulatory filing.

In the unlimited voice plans, Airtel has raised tariff from Rs 179 to Rs 199, from Rs 455 to Rs 599, from Rs 1,799 to Rs 1,999, according to a statement.

Bharti Airtel has maintained that the mobile Average Revenue per User (ARPU) needs to be upwards of Rs 300, to enable a financially healthy business model for telcos in India.

On June 28, market leader Reliance Jio took announced a12-25 percent rise in tariff for all mobile plans across prepaid and postpaid segments. The move is expected to boost the telco’s monthly average revenue per user (ARPU), which had stagnated at Rs 181.7 for three quarters until March 2024.

The company has also restricted the access of unlimited free 5G services for customers. The hike comes immediately after the spectrum auction, as per the anticipation of sector experts.

Over the years, India’s telecom ARPU has been among the lowest in the world.

Meanwhile, in the latest round of telecom spectrum auction, which ended on June 27, Bharti Airtel topped the buyers’ list with bids worth Rs 6,856 crore for 97 MHz spectrum, while market leader Reliance Jio bought the 14.4 MHz spectrum at Rs 973 crore. The third private telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) acquired 50 MHz of spectrum at a total commitment of Rs 3,510 crore. BusinessToday