Jun 29, 2024 01:21 PM IST
Indians may spend an extra ₹45,700 crore on data plans after India’s top 3 telecom operators, Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone raised prices in a span of two days.
Indian consumers are expected to spend an extra ₹47,500 crore anually due the tariff hikes by India’s top 3 telecom operators, the Economic Times wrote, citing a Kotak Institutional Equities research note. This tariff hike was done to effectively monetise their new 5G services and put an end to the price war among telecom operators that has been going on since 2016.
How much were tariffs hikes by Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone?
Reliance Jio raised prices by 13%-27%, Bharti Airtel raised tariffs by 10%-21%, and Vodafone Idea raised prices by around 10-23%, all within a span of two days.
A Jio customer wanting a 5G data plan must now pay a minimum of ₹349 for a 2GB a day pack instead of the earlier ₹239 pack with 1.5 GB a day.
Also Read: Vodafone Idea joins Jio and Airtel to collectively hike tariffs: Check new prices
An Airtel customer wanting 5G now has to take an even bigger upgrade to a ₹409 pack with 2.5GB of data a day, instead of the ₹239 pack with 1.5 GB a day earlier.
Why were tariffs hiked by Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone?
Bharti Airtel’s MD Gopal Vittal as well as Vodafone Idea’s CEO Akshaya Moondra had often talked about India’s telecom situation, highlighting that the pricing structure has to change to the global standard where users pay more for using more data, while in India, users currently pay the same on average, regardless of usage.
Also Read: Bharti Airtel raises prices after Reliance Jio hikes: These are the new prices
India’s telecom price wars were started by Jio using low prices to bring in subscribers, which lead to competitors like Airtel and Vodafone to do the same to not risk losing their customers.
Also Read: Reliance Jio announces tariff hike from July 3, announces new Unlimited 5G data plans. Details here
