Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks


5G launch in India is just a matter of a few months now. We might get to see live 5G networks in multiple cities of India by the end of 2022. At the same time, one should remember that 4G tariff hikes are nearby too. Back in November 2022, every telco had announced a prepaid tariff hike. This tariff hike for the prepaid plans came after a two year period. However, the telcos aren’t going to wait that long again.
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) have cleared their intentions of implementing another prepaid tariff hike for 4G plans soon. The thing is, there might not be much difference between the price of 4G and 5G plans in India. The same has been hinted at by many industry people, including Randeep Sekhon, CTO (Chief Technology Officer), Bharti Airtel.
Phones Bills Might Go Up by Close to 50% Compared to 2021
At the end of 2021, a 20%-25% tariff hike was implemented on the prepaid plans. If the price of the services is again increased by the same margin, in a span of just one year, people would be paying close to 50% more for prepaid services than what they used to pay in 2021.
While the investors of the telcos will be happy, the consumers won’t look at it as a positive development. There will be many people for whom basic prepaid plans would become unaffordable. Regardless, a prepaid tariff hike is going to take place.