Bharti Airtel has today announced that the telecom operator will be hiking its prepaid plan prices for various plans in India. The new rates will affect voice plans, unlimited voice and data plan bundles as well as data top up recharges.
“Bharti Airtel has always maintained that the mobile Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) needs to be at Rs 200 and ultimately at Rs 300, so as to provided a reasonable return on capital that allows for a financially health business model,” Airtel said in a statement.
“We also believe that this level of ARPU will enable the substantial investments required in networks and spectrum. Even more important, this will give Airtel the elbow room to roll out 5G in India. Therefore, as a first step, we are taking the lead in rebalancing our tariffs during the month of November. Accordingly, our new tariffs as indicated below will come into effect from November 26, 2021,” the company added.
As per the hike, the Rs 79 voice plan will now cost Rs 99 and offer “50 percent more talk time worth ₹99, 200 MB data, and 1p/sec voice tariff”.
The base plan will now cost ₹99, up from the current price of ₹79. The popular ₹598 plan will now cost users ₹719, an increase of ₹121. The price of the annual plan has been increased by over ₹500 and will now cost ₹2,999.
Also read: Maruti, Reliance, Sun Pharma, here’s trending stocks to watch out today
Vodafone Idea will now also be looking to raise tariffs to somewhat similar levels as of Airtel. There’s no saying whether Reliance Jio will do the same or not as Jio is more focused on increasing subscriber market share.
The new tariffs will be applicable starting November 26, 2021. So users have four days ahead of them so that they can recharge with their favourite plans before the tariff hikes kick in.