Airtel hikes Tariffs by 20-25 percent, new rates applicable from November 26
Bharti Airtel has today announced that thetelecom operator will be hiking its prepaid plan prices for various plans inIndia. The new rates will affect voice plans, unlimited voice and data planbundles as well as data top up recharges.
“Bharti Airtel has always maintained that themobile Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) needs to be at Rs 200 and ultimately atRs 300, so as to provided a reasonable return on capital that allows for afinancially health business model,” Airtel said in a statement.
“We also believe that this level of ARPU willenable the substantial investments required in networks and spectrum. Even moreimportant, 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 tariffsduring the month of November. Accordingly, our new tariffs as indicated belowwill come into effect from November 26, 2021,” the company added.
As per the hike, the Rs 79 voice plan willnow cost Rs 99 and offer “50 percent more talk time worth ₹99, 200 MB data, and1p/sec voice tariff”.
The base plan will now cost ₹99, up from thecurrent price of ₹79. The popular ₹598 plan will now cost users ₹719, anincrease of ₹121. The price of the annual plan has been increased by over ₹500and will now cost ₹2,999.
Vodafone Idea will now also be looking toraise tariffs to somewhat similar levels as of Airtel. There’s no sayingwhether Reliance Jio will do the same or not as Jio is more focused onincreasing subscriber market share.
The new tariffs will be applicable startingNovember 26, 2021. So users have four days ahead of them so that they canrecharge with their favourite plans before the tariff hikes kick in.