Last month, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea posted huge losses on account of provisioning for the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) pending dues and spectrum charges. Post that, there were announcements by both companies regarding a hike in tariffs in the coming days. Now, both Airtel and Vodafone Idea, along with Reliance Jio announced that going forward, their prepaid tariffs will be hiked. This marks the end of a protracted tariff war, initiated by Reliance Jio, which made it possible for India to have among the lowest tariff rates in the world.
Vodafone Idea’s new tariffs will come into effect from December 3rd
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have announced that the new hiked tariff will come into effect starting December 3rd and have also revealed their new plans. Reliance Jio, on the other hand, has not detailed the new plans, but has said they will come into effect starting December 6th. Vodafone Idea has revised the rates of only those plans which offer unlimited calls and data. Apart from that, the company also announced several new plans. Both Vodafone Idea and Airtel have announced that their new tariffs will be higher by up to 42 percent. Jio has announced a marginally lower 40 percent peak hike in the revised tariffs.
Airtel has hiked its tariffs by up to 42 percent in India
With the revised tariffs, Vodafone Idea has set a FUP on calls being made to other networks and its cheapest plan is now priced at Rs 19. Vodafone Idea has also announced new plans including two combo plans, four 28 days validity plans, three 84 days validity plans and two year-round plans. These plans offer talk time benefits and data limits to the user. Airtel, on the other hand, already had a Rs 19 plan as its cheapest option and has not increased the price. You get 100 SMSes per day, unlimited calling and 150MB of data for two days. However, the company has increased the prices of all other plans in its portfolio.
Jio has announced that despite the hike in tariff, users will get up to 300 percent more benefits under the new plans. The telecom company also assured users that it will provide fair usage policy for outgoing calls from Jio to other networks.