New Delhi: A day after India’s top telecom operator Reliance Jio announced a 12-27 per cent hike in mobile tariffs, Bharti Airtel on Friday announced an increase in rates between 10-21 per cent. The mobile tariff hike from mobile operators comes immediately after the 10th spectrum auction, which ended in just two days with muted response from the industry. Both the revisions will be effective from July 3.
Reliance Jio
Reliance Jio has also restricted the access of unlimited free 5G services for customers.
“The introduction of new plans is a step in the direction of furthering industry innovation and driving sustainable growth through investments in 5G and AI technology,” Reliance Jio Infocomm Chairman Akash M Ambani said in the statement.
Jio has raised mobile service rates across almost all plans. The price of the lowest recharge is being raised to Rs 19, about 27 per cent higher than Rs 15 for 1 GB data add-on-pack. The 75 GB postpaid data plan will now cost Rs 449 against Rs 399.
Jio has also raised the price of the popular Rs 666 unlimited plan with 84-day validity by about 20 per cent to Rs 799. Prices of the annual recharge plans will be increased by 20-21 per cent from Rs 1,559 to Rs 1,899 and from Rs 2,999 to Rs 3,599. The hike across the medium-range mobile service plans will be 19-21 per cent.
“Unlimited 5G data will be available on all 2GB per day and above plans… The new plans will be made effective on July 3, 2024, and can be opted from all existing touchpoints and channels,” the statement said.
As of now, subscribers availing plans priced above Rs 239 can access unlimited free 5G service in Jio, and the rest of the customers have to top up their plan with a Rs 61 voucher to avail unlimited 5G service. Earlier, Jio had raised mobile service rates in December 2021 along with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
Jio has over 47 crore mobile subscribers, accounting for about 41 per cent market share. Besides the hike in mobile service rates, Jio introduced two apps – Jio Safe and JioTranslate – which it provides absolutely free to its customers for one year.
Priced at Rs 199 per month, JioSafe – Quantum-secure communication app can be used for calling, messaging, file transfer etc. AI-enabled JioTranslate is a multilingual communication app for translating voice calls, voice messages, text and images.
Bharti Airtel
The revisions in Bharti Airtel mobile tariffs will be effective from July 3. “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,” the Sunil Mittal-led telecom firm said announcing the revision in mobile tariffs.
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 believe that this level of ARPU will enable the substantial investments required in network technology and spectrum and offer a modest return on capital,” the telco said.
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 has been increased to Rs 579 (20.8 per cent increase).