Supporting earlier rumours of Vodafone Idea's tariff hike, a new report by ET Telecom now says the struggling telco might raise the tariff prices by 15-20%. The tariff hike will likely happen by the end of 2020 or early 2021, two persons aware of the matter said to the publication. While announcing the quarter results that ended on September 30, 2020, Vi officials said they would not hesitate in raising the tariff prices ahead of Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. The rival telcos Airtel and Jio remain silent on tariff hike for now, but Vodafone Idea is facing severe financial pressure, and the telco is also losing subscribers on an active basis.
Vodafone Idea Tariff Hike to Happen by the End of 2020 or in Early 2021
“The company is likely to increase tariffs even as telcos wait for the regulator to fix floor prices,” said one person aware of the matter to ET Telecom. After the recent quarter results, several analysts also predicted the tariff hike from Vi is inevitable considering the financial situation of the telco. To recall, Vodafone Idea was the first telecom operator to announce tariff hike in November last year. "Vi could hike rates as early as in December," said another person to the publication.
It is also said that Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio will wait a little longer before hiking the tariff prices. Furthermore, the report added that Vi already held internal talks regarding the tariff hike. We might see the tariff prices of Vi could go up by at least 15%. During the last hike, we saw a hike of 14% from the telco.
Vodafone Idea is already struggling in the industry. Even the subscription data released by Trai for August 2020 revealed the telco had lost more than one million existing users. This is something Vi should keep in mind before raising the tariffs. If Airtel and Jio decide to hold the tariff hike for a while, the majority of Vi subscribers will port out. We recently reported that Airtel would be in the best position to grab the customers of Vodafone Idea.
