Bharti Airtel hikes prepaid tariff by up to 25%

Bharti Airtel on Monday announced it was raising prepaid tariffs by up to 25% with effect from November 26, reasoning that the move had been necessitated by the need to increase mobile revenues so as to safeguard the business's financial health.

“Bharti Airtel has always maintained that the mobile Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) needs to be at ₹200 and ultimately at ₹300, so as to provide a reasonable return on capital that allows for a financially healthy business model,” Bharti said in a statement.

For the second quarter ended September 2021, the company’s mobile ARPU stood at ₹153 as against ₹143 in July-September 2020.

“We also believe that this level of ARPU will enable the substantial investments required in networks and spectrum. Even more important, this will give Airtel the elbow room to roll out 5G in India,” it said, adding that therefore, as a first step, it was taking the lead in rebalancing tariffs.

The current ₹79 plan will cost ₹99 from November 26. Likewise, the ₹149 plan will cost ₹30 more at ₹179, the ₹1,498 plan will become ₹1,799 and the ₹ 2,498 plan will cost ₹2,999. Data top ups will now cost ₹58 (up from ₹48), ₹118 (₹98) and ₹301 (₹251), respectively.

Bharti Airtel shares rose in the wake of the tariff increase announcement and were trading 4% higher on the BSE at ₹743.45 as of 10.29 a.m.

The entire list of new tariffs is as below: