Mobile Users Brace: Tariffs Could Jump by 12%—Here’s When
New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): The burden on the pockets of crores of mobile users in the country may increase once again. According to a report, telecom companies are preparing to increase their tariff plans by 10 to 12 percent by the end of this year. Industry analysts and officials believe that the record increase in the number of active users in the month of May has encouraged the companies for another price hike.
Why will prices increase?
The telecom sector has been adding new customers continuously for the last five months. In the month of May alone, 74 lakh new active users were added, taking the total figure to around 1.08 billion. This is the biggest jump in the last 29 months. The two biggest companies in the market, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, played a big role in this growth. Jio added 55 lakh new active users in May, while Airtel added 13 lakh new customers. Analysts believe that in view of this increasing number of customers, companies may decide to increase tariffs.
However, some experts have also cautioned. They say that in July 2024 itself, the prices of the basic plan were increased by 11 to 23 percent, so increasing the prices again can be a risky step.
Mid and upper-end plans will be expensive
According to analysts, this time the price hike will not affect all users equally. The main target of the companies can be mid and upper-level plans. The prices of the basic plan have already increased significantly, which has increased the pressure on the low-income group users. Therefore, companies can now focus on those users who are able to pay more for more data and better services.
Apart from this, brokerage firm Jefferies believes that Jio and Airtel are getting direct benefit from the continuously declining customer base of Vodafone Idea (Vi). This has strengthened their hold in the market and they can easily increase their profits by changing the tariff.