Last week, Reliance Jio said that new tariff plans will be effective from October 19, which is now two days away. However, before that, several industry experts and research firms say that the operator will likely increase the cost of the tariff plan, which will allow the incumbent operators to raise the tariffs.
A Goldman Sachs report cites that Jio will raise tariff plans by 24% on the Rs. 399 plan, which was earlier available for Rs. 309. “We expect Jio to raise tariffs by 24% on its most popular plan (Rs 399) in the next few days, based on the pattern of its recent price hikes. We already expect Jio to take away promotions altogether by end of FY18 and any such move in the near term would be viewed positively by investors,” Goldman Sachs said in an analyst report.
Back in April 2017, Reliance Jio announced the Rs. 309 plan which offered same benefits as the Rs. 399 tariff plan- unlimited voice calls, 1GB data per day, and unlimited SMS for 84 days. It also gives access to Jio's premium apps such as JioTV, JioCinema, etc.
“With three months having lapsed since the last price plan change, new plans could be in the offing and we expect Jio to potentially raise effective tariffs by 24 per cent/47 per cent/95 per cent for three months/two months/one month plan in the coming few days, based on the patterns of recent plan adjustments,” the report added.
That said, after Reliance Jio announcing the Rs. 399 plan, incumbent operators such as Airtel, Idea Cellular, and Vodafone came out with similar plan to retain the subscribers. And if Jio increases the price of the plan, incumbent plans will also follow the suit, as per industry experts.
Reliance Jio recently disclosed its financial reports for the first time and also revealed that the company now has 138.6 million subscribers under its belt. Having said that, the subscriber growth of the company is slowed down since it started charging the customers, and it will be further slowed down if Jio increases the tariffs price this time around.
