Jio, Airtel and Vi Engage in Direct and Indirect Tariff Hikes

Reported by Tanay Singh Thakur August 31st, 2023 at 06:28 pm

While there are cheap JioBharat Phone and JioPhone plans, you can't recharge with them if you don't have an eligible device. For maximum users, now the minimum Jio recharge plan is the Rs 149 option. This means that you have to shell out Rs 149 to keep your SIM active. But the thing is, this plan only comes with a validity of 20 days.

Highlights

Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (VI) need to improve their revenue margins over the medium term to justify their investments.
An indirect tariff hike can be done in multiple ways.
It is not just the private telcos, but even Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has engaged in an indirect tariff hike.

Jio Airtel Vi

Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (VI) need to improve their revenue margins over the medium term to justify their investments. Thus, the telcos are trying to indirectly hike tariffs for customers. An indirect tariff hike can be done in multiple ways. It is not just the private telcos, but even Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has engaged in an indirect tariff hike. Without delving much into why the telcos are doing this, let's talk about what has actually happened. Let's check out how much the customers have to pay to the private telcos to keep their SIM active now.

Reliance Jio Minimum Recharge Plan

While there are cheap JioBharat Phone and JioPhone plans, you can't recharge with them if you don't have an eligible device. For maximum users, now the minimum Jio recharge plan is the Rs 149 option. This means that you have to shell out Rs 149 to keep your SIM active. But the thing is, this plan only comes with a validity of 20 days. So you have to recharge with this plan every 20 days. You get unlimited voice calling, 100 SMS/day, and 1GB daily data. Earlier, the Rs 129 plan used to come for Jio customers and it had a validity of 14 days.

With that respect, this plan is more economical in terms of daily cost, but it is still Rs 20 more for the customer.

Bharti Airtel Minimum Recharge Plan

Bharti Airtel used to offer a Rs 99 plan, but that was discontinued throughout India in early 2023. This minimum recharge plan was replaced by the Rs 155 plan. This means, that instead of Rs 99, now the users have to spend Rs 155 just to keep their Airtel SIM active. This helped Airtel is boosting its average revenue per user (ARPU) figure. The Rs 155 plan from Airtel comes with 1GB of data, unlimited voice calling, 300 SMS, and a validity of 24 days.

Vodafone Idea Minimum Recharge Plan

While Vodafone Idea continues to offer the Rs 99 plan, its benefits have been reduced for some circles. The plan offers Rs 99 worth of talktime, no free SMS benefit, and 200MB of data. Depending on the circle you are in, you will get either 28 days of validity or 15 days of validity.