Airtel prepaid plans to see another price hike this year, CEO confirms

 In a significant blow to users, Airtel is preparing to raise the price of its prepaid plans. This comes after the Telecom Companies including Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio, and Airtel raised the costs of prepaid plans just last year in November .

Company’s CEO, Gopal Vittal, confirmed the information by stating that Airtel will most likely increase the pricing again in 2022. The average revenue per user (ARPU) will be Rs 200 this time.

According to the Economic Times report, Airtel is unhappy with the Telecom regulator’s 5G base rates. Vittal on Wednesday, during an earnings call mentioned: “The industry had hoped for a significant price drop, while there has been a decrease, it has not been adequate and is, in that sense, disappointing.”

All three privately held Telecom Companies raised prepaid plan costs by around 18 to 25% last year. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI’S) recommendation for 5G reverse tariffs has angered the telecom companies. The businesses were aiming for around 90% reduction in 5G reverse fees.

“In my opinion we should start seeing some tariff rises this year. I feel the tariffs are still quite low at that level. The first step is to get to 200 which will necessitate at least one round of tariff increases: Vittal explained. According to him, the users will be able to absorb the impact. The new price increase would barely be a blip on the radar. Despite the price hike last time, Airtel gained about 5.24 million new 4G subscribers in March. This was more of a contrast to the 3 million new subscribers in the previous three-month period.

In November 2021, Airtel was the first to raise prepaid plan costs by 18 to 25%. Last year Reliance Jio hiked its plan prices by upto 20% and Vodafone Idea hiked plan costs in similar range as Airtel.