In the recent development of events, Airtel has decided to take back some of the data benefits it was offering as an additional benefit along with some of its prepaid plans. The telecom giant said that the move will be helpful in avoiding any confusion that customers might have while comparing and choosing the plan for themselves. As reported earlier Airtel has also increased the prices of its plans by around 20% - 25% which includes tariffed voice and data top-ups. The new prices have come into effect from November 26.
The Retracted Plan from Airtel
Airtel has been offering customers an additional 500MB of data on selected plans as promotional coupons. However, in a response to an email inquiry, an Airtel official informed that it is quite in practice for telecom companies to provide promotional coupons or added benefits exclusively through their apps. He further told that these offers stand withdrawn currently as it may create confusion in the minds of customers while comparing certain plans.
The 500 MB plan offer was quite simple for users to access. All they needed to do was download the Airtel Thanks application and access the 500MB additional data whenever they needed to. The plans that included this promotional coupon were Rs 719, Rs 299, Rs 265, and Rs 839 - offering unlimited voice calling and 100 SMS/day. This offer was first provided by Airtel on its Rs 249 plan which later became the existing Rs 299 plan.
Moreover, while announcing the surge in its tariffs, the telco giant had informed that the company needs to get its Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) to at least Rs 200 for now and Rs 300 later in order to have a reasonable return on capital and maintain the entity’s financial health going forward.
A statement from Airtel said that they are looking to maintain this level of ARPU which will further allow them to make investments in networks and spectrum. Additionally, this would also enable Airtel to execute their 5G services in the country. Airtel has also said that the recent tariff hike is their first step towards their plan and termed it as ‘rebalancing’ tariffs.
