After Jio, Airtel, Vi announce 10-24% hike in mobile tariffs from first week of July

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea will roll out revised mobile service tariffs increasing rates in the range of 10-24 per cent from the first week of July.

Bharti Airtel announced a 10-21 per cent hike in prepaid and postpaid mobile tariffs from July 3, a day after larger rival Reliance Jio announced an increase in rates.

Later in the day, loss-making telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) also announced its plan to raise mobile tariffs by 11-24 per cent from July 4.

Vi, however, has not made any changes across its several plans comprising Rs 1,799 and Rs 3,099 plan with 365 days validity as well as some of the data add-on packs.

Bharti Airtel said it 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.

"We have ensured that there is a very modest price increase (less than 70 paise per day) on entry-level plans, in order to eliminate any burden on budget-challenged consumers," Airtel said announcing revision in its mobile tariffs.

The tariff hikes from mobile operators come immediately after the 10th spectrum auction, which ended in just two days with muted response from the industry.

Jio, India's largest telecom operator, announced a 12-27 per cent hike in mobile tariffs on Thursday.

That said, a look at the tariff and rate hikes announced by the two telcos respectively, indicates that most of the Airtel mobile plans will still cost more than that of Reliance Jio.

According to a UBS report, Airtel's new price across plans will cost 3-22 per cent more than that of Jio's plan which will be effective from July 3 onwards.

Among the unlimited voice plans, Airtel has raised tariffs in the ballpark range of about 11 per cent, and accordingly rates are revised from Rs 179 to Rs 199; from Rs 455 to Rs 509; and from Rs 1,799 to Rs 1,999.

In the daily data plan category, the Rs 479 plan that comes with a 56-day validity and 1.5 GB data per day, has been increased to Rs 579 (20.8 per cent hike).

The 1GB per day plan with 28-day validity has been tweaked from Rs 265 to Rs 299, whereas the 1.5 GB per day offering has increased from Rs 299 to Rs 349.

In the longer 84-day validity plans, subscribers will have to shell out Rs 140 more (in absolute terms) depending on the offering.

Here, the 1.5 GB per day offering has been raised from Rs 719 to Rs 859, while the 2 GB per day offering has been raised from Rs 839 to Rs 979.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) has announced changes across most of its plan from July 4.

"In line with its commitment to provide its consumers with simple and comprehensive plans, Vi has curated an optimum range of feature-rich plans to meet the diverse needs of its consumers. Staying true to its philosophy of supporting entry-level users and progressively linking higher prices to increased usage, changes in entry-level plans are nominal," Vi said.

The company has raised the entry-level plan, minimum recharge value for 28 days of mobile service, by about 11 per cent to Rs 199 from Rs 179.

Vi has raised the price of a popular 84-day validity plan with 1.5 GB data per day to Rs 859 from Rs 719 earlier.

The company has increased the price of its annual unlimited plan by about 21 per cent to Rs 3,499 from 2,899 at present.

It has made no change in its 365-day validity plan with 24 GB data limit, which costs users Rs 1,799 as well as a high-end annual prepaid plan of Rs 3,099 which offers 2GB data per day.

"Vi is planning significant investments over the next few quarters to further enhance the 4G experience as well as launch 5G services," the statement said.