Telecom operators are likely to introduce new rates for their prepaid and postpaid plans later this fiscal year. Recently, Airtel dropped the Rs 99 plan and introduced Rs 155 as the base package for its customers. Also, there is a strong possibility that Reliance Jio will join the bandwagon and increase the fees as both have introduced 5G services in India. Similarly, Jefferies analysts say telecom carriers are expected to increase rates by 10 percent in the last quarter of fiscal years 23, 24 and 25.
This clearly shows that telecom operators will increase rates in the fourth quarter of the next three years. The report also pointed out that declining revenue and stagnant ARPU are also the reason behind the upcoming increase. For those who don’t know, Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is an important factor for telcos and price increases will help telcos increase ARPU.
Airtel and Reliance Jio rate increase in India
The Jefferies report (via BusinessInsider) suggests that mobile carriers are likely to increase rates by 10 percent, which is expected to be less than increases in 2019 and 2021. Additionally, the report states that Airtel will increase rates for March 2023 and will continue to increase them until the end of fiscal year 2025, which means that every 12 months there will be an increase.
However, this could be a big problem for customers as telecommunication services have become a basic necessity, and the continued rise will burn a hole in people’s pockets.
It is important to mention that the base plan of India’s second largest telecom operator, Airtel, starts at Rs 155 as compared to the previous plan of Rs 99. This revised plan is 57 per cent more expensive than the previous package and is has performed in the affordable segment. The package has been removed in Haryana, Odisha, and the company may soon remove the same package in all circles. The Rs 155 package provides 1 GB of data, access to Wynk Music, Zee5 Premium, Airtel Xstream and 100 messages for just 18 days. In terms of availability, this package is available in some circles including Rajasthan, UP East, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal.
Also, the price increase will affect the subscriber base of the telecom operators, but one should not forget that Jio and Airtel are providing 5G services, while Vodafone-Idea is not close to making any announcement as it is fighting for raise funds and retain 4G customers. .
This means that there will be another fight between India’s two major telecom operators, Airtel and Reliance Jio, to attract new customers to their network and retain them in the coming months. Rate increases are likely to play a role as customers are always looking for affordability and better services at the same time.