Users may have to shell out more for mobile top-up plans in the years to come. Telecom companies in India will increase tariffs by up to 10 percent by March next year, investment bank Jefferies has reportedly announced. Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are scheduled to increase their tariffs in the last quarter of fiscal years 2023, 2024 and 2025. The increasing pressure on companies’ sales and margins is likely to be the main reason for the tariff increase. India’s big three telecoms reported modest gains in average revenue per user (ARPU), a key performance indicator for telecoms, during the September quarter.
A report by Business Insider, citing Jefferies, suggests so Bharti Airtel and trust jio was able to announce a 10 percent wage increase in the last quarter of fiscal years 2023, 2024 and 2025. Increasing pressure on companies’ revenues and margins, as well as modest gains in average revenue per user (ARPU) are the main factors behind this price increase.
In the quarter ended September, Jio’s ARPU reportedly increased 0.8 percent, while Vodafone Idea and Airtel reported increases of 1 percent and 4 percent, respectively.
The analysts also note that increases in subscriber churn, which refers to the number of customers who stop paying for service in a given period of time, and mobile number portability (MNP) requests are indicators of competition in the telecom space.
Airtel appears to have started implementing the price increase by withdrawing Rs. 99 plan under which 200MB of data and calls was offered at the price of Rs. 2.5 paises per second. Last month, the company reintroduced the Rs. 99 cell phone service plan with a price increase of about 57 per cent to Rs. 155. The new plan offers unlimited calls, 1GB of data, Wynk Music access and 300 SMS for 24 days. This pack is available in some circles.
Like recently TRAI data, Jio added 7,20,000 mobile subscribers in September while Bharti Airtel increased its mobile subscriber base by 4,12,000. Vodafone Idea faces a 40,00,000 drop in subscribers and its base shrank to 24.91 million. Both Airtel and Jio are currently leaders in 5G deployment in the country.
