Bharti Airtel Hikes Prepaid Plans By Up To 20-25%, Base Plan Now Starts at ₹99

On Monday, Bharti Airtel announced that it will increase tariffs for prepaid plans by 20-25%, starting from November 26, 2021. The company’s base plan which used to start at ₹79, now will be available for ₹99. To recall, the base ₹79 offered ₹64 talk time, 200MB of data, and a validity of 28 days. Apart from the ₹79 base plan, Airtel has hiked plans starting from ₹149 till ₹2,498. Considering that the prepaid plans have been hiked already, we also expect the telecom operator to increase the prices of its postpaid plans in the upcoming few weeks.

Bharti Airtel Increases The Cost of Prepaid Plans By Up To 20-25%

As mentioned earlier, the new prepaid plans rate will come into effect from November 26, 2021. Apart from increasing the tariff of prepaid plans, Airtel also has hiked the prices of data plans. Users will have to pay ₹58 for the 3GB data plan. The same plan was previously priced at ₹48. Similarly, the cost of ₹98 and ₹251 data plans have been increased to ₹118 and ₹301, respectively.

In the coming weeks, we also expect other telecom operators in India to increase the prices of their prepaid and postpaid plans. Last week, the Vodafone Idea (Vi) CEO Ravinder Takkar indicated that tariff hikes will happen soon. However, the company did not give any date for a hike in its prepaid and postpaid plan rates.

Also Read: Airtel Launches New ₹499, ₹699, And ₹2,798 Prepaid Plans With Disney+ Hotstar Mobile Subscription

In a statement, Bharti Airtel said, “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. 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. Therefore, as a first step, we are taking the lead in rebalancing our tariffs during the month of November. Accordingly, our new tariffs as indicated below will come into effect from November 26, 2021.”