Airtel, Jio, Vi Price Hike Impact: Here’s What Holds For Future

Back in November last year, the leading telecom operators in India - Airtel, Vi and Reliance Jio announced a price hike on their prepaid plans. Notably, these companies raised the tariff plans by 20 to 25 percent. Given that the price hike in the third quarter, the results for this quarter witnessed some impact though not a complete blow.

However, the tariff hike will register its complete impact on the performance of these telcos in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year. This hike in the prepaid plans is expected to improve the ARPU (average revenue per user) of these telecom operators, which is a move that will increase their profitability to some extent. Among these telcos, Jio is expected to get the most benefit.

Jio Likely To Add More Subscribers

While the price hike on the prepaid plans is expected to help the telcos improve their ARPU, there is a negative side to it. As per speculations, telecom giants Airtel and Vi are likely to lose subscribers due to this move. On the other hand, Jio is likely to add more users, thanks to its existing JioPhone Next smartphone.

A report by ET Telecom notes that the ultra-affordable 4G smartphone that is available at affordable pricing could help Jio gain more subscribers despite the price hike of its prepaid plans.

For the uninitiated, the ARPU of Jio could increase from Rs. 60 to Rs. 100. As of September 2021, the ARPU of the telco was Rs. 143.6 while that of Airtel and Vi were Rs. 153 and Rs. 109 respectively. With the increase in prepaid plans pricing, this is likely to increase in the last quarter of this fiscal year.

Already, 2022 seems to be a year of big events for the telecom industry. While we just stepped into this year, Reliance Jio is already expected to go for a mega IPO filing or a separate listing sometime this year. Likewise, Airtel has formed a joint venture with Hughes Communications India, which is a majority-owned arm of Hughes Network Systems, USA and is gearing up to provide satellite broadband services in India. We will get to know more details regarding these developments as they happen.