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Highlights
- All the private telecom operators in India, including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) could hike the price of its prepaid plans soon.
- The prepaid plans can see a price increase by up to 15%, according to a preview report by the Centrum Institutional Research for Q1 FY27 telecom and internet sector.
- This tariff hike could come in a span of just three to four months.
Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
All the private telecom operators in India, including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) could hike the price of its prepaid plans soon. The prepaid plans can see a price increase by up to 15%, according to a preview report by the Centrum Institutional Research for Q1 FY27 telecom and internet sector. This tariff hike could come in a span of just three to four months. The telcos have seen muted ARPU (average revenue per user) growth over the last one or two quarters. Further, it has been two years since the prices were hiked.
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“The pricing environment has become more favourable with only 3+1 players and we expect another 12-15% tariff hike over the next 3 to 4 months,”
the report mentioned.
The majority of the ARPU growth is coming from migration of 2G users to 4G/5G and a higher data consumption. To see any real and impactful growth of ARPU, the telcos will have to raise the prices of their plans.
How will the Next Tariff Hike in India Look?
Going by the statements and indications given by the management of India’s private telecom operators, we expect that the next round of tariff hikes will not just be a direct price increase. Instead, the price hike will be with a change in pricing structure. The pricing structure currently allows people to pay same amounts for varied usage. In the future, the telcos could charge consumers by their usage. This simply means that if you are using more data, you will pay more money. This way, telcos will be able to meaningfully raise their ARPU and topline revenues, along with margins on services as cost of data delivery will remain the same regardless of the usage by the consumer. Stay tuned to TelecomTalk for more details and updates around the tariff hikes in India.
