Mobile recharge plans may soon get costlier by 10-12 percent: Report

Prepaid mobile users might soon have to pay more as telecom operators may be planning another hike in tariffs by Diwali 2022. A significant hike is expected, almost a year after last November’s hike in prepaid tariffs by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea.

First reported by ET Telecom, the research report states that the operators may announce another rise in the prices of prepaid recharge plans in order to increase their average revenue per user (ARPU).

The report by Indian unit of US firm, William O’ Neil & Co’s head of equity research Mayuresh Joshi mentions that Airtel is looking to boost ARPU to Rs 200 while the targets for VI and Jio are Rs 135 and Rs 185 respectively.

Back in 2021, plans were hiked by the three telcos by as much as 20 to 25 percent. The hike resulted in low-cost popular recharge plans soar to Rs 99 from Rs 79. 2G high-tier plan with validity of 84 days from Airtel saw an increase of Rs 141, to Rs 839 from Rs 698.

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Prices of data booster plans went up accordingly seeing hikes between Rs 10 to Rs 50 for data options from 3GB to 50GB.

The fresh report also suggests that the customers opting for low-cost 2G plans are impacting the revenue of VI.

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