Airtel might increase base plan rates in all telecom circles soon

With Rs 155 being the base plan, users get access to unlimited local, STD, and roaming calls as well as 300 SMS and 1 GB of data which has a 28-day validity period.

Bharti Airtel plans to increase the base rate in all of its service circles, raising the rate from Rs 99 to Rs 155 as the base plan according to a Mint article. In 18 of its 22 total circles, the telco has already raised the price. On November 21, last year, it began hiking the plan prices in Odisha and Haryana circles.

This base price revision was then followed by a hike in 7 more circles including  Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Northeast, and UP-West. The hike was afterwards extended to Delhi, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh-east, West Bengal, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, and Assam making it 15+ circles in total.

This tariff adjustment coincides with Indian telecom operators' accelerated 5G network roll-out. Around 35% of India's towers are now fiberized as per a recent ICRA report and ICRA estimates that the telcos might end up paying close to between 3 and 4 lakh crore over the next 4-5 years to fiberize all the towers necessary for a complete widespread 5G network. Deploying such densified infrastructure needed for good 5G network without notable price changes appears to be extremely difficult.

200 megabytes of data was included in the Rs 99 package, while the calls cost Rs 2.5 paise per second. As practically users in every bracket look for unlimited calling package, this is a change that has been long anticipated. With Rs 155 being the base plan, users get access to unlimited local, STD, and roaming calls as well as 300 SMS and 1 GB of data which has a 28-day validity period. Customers who use this recharge can additionally take advantage of Free Wynk Music and HelloTunes free of cost. All subscribers also receive access to Airtel 5G Pus services on current data plans. It won't be long until Airtel raises rates in the remaining few circles.