Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has hiked the tariffs of its prepaid plans. The telco among other operators is looking to gain more revenues out of its each customer. Vodafone Idea (Vi) and Bharti Airtel have time and again made the case that the average revenue per customer (ARPU) for the industry should go up to Rs 200 at least. But at current market prices, it’s very hard to do that. Thus the operators are looking towards tariff hikes and are increasing the prices of the plans or reducing the benefits of their existing plans and offering them for the same price. BSNL has implemented an indirect tariff hike as it has reduced the benefits of its plans but hasn’t changed the price at all.

BSNL was known for offering generous amounts of validity with its plans. Reports speculate that the telcos may increase the tariff hikes further in the next four to six months to increase the (average revenue per user) and average gross revenue (AGR). BSNL has reduced the validity of special tariff vouchers priced at Rs 49, Rs 75, Rs 94 and plan vouchers priced at Rs 106, Rs 107, Rs 197 and Rs 397. The changes took place on August 1 and the development was first noted by Kerala Telecom.

The entry-level special tariff voucher priced at Rs 49 used to give validity of 28 days which has now been reduced to 24 days. This special tariff voucher can be used by customers who want to keep their plans active. The telco allows discounted call rate of 45 paise per minute, 2GB free data and a total of 100 free SMS to any network for the entire validity period.

Last month, Airtel has also discontinued its Rs 49 entry-level prepaid recharge. The Rs 49 Airtel Smart Recharge plan used to offer customers talktime worth Rs 38.52, and 100MB of data. Once the provided 100MB data is exhausted, users will be charged Rs 0.50 per MB. The plan comes with a validity period of 28 days. Airtel has raised its minimum prepaid plan from Rs 49 to Rs 79.
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Meanwhile, BSNL’s Rs 75 prepaid plan will give a reduced validity of 50 days as against the 60 days validity it previously gave. It also gives 100 minutes of free voice calls to any network, 2GB free data and free BSNL default tunes for 50 days. After free calls, the telco charges 30 paise per minute for outgoing calls.