Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea could increase their recharge prices by up to 20 per cent, depending on prices. The price hike will most likely be introduced from December 2019.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Customers of Airtel, Jio and Vodafone Idea could shell an extra 20 per cent on all recharges.
- Operators could increase up to 20 per cent depending on the price and value of the recharge plans.
- Operators could also increase prices of all plans uniformly.
Earlier this week, Vodafone Idea took to the stage to announce major price hikes for its services after the Supreme Court ruled the AGR decision in favour of the government. Soon after, Airtel also announced price hikes while Jio has hinted that it could do the same if it deems a price hike is necessary to keep it alive. While these three carriers are set to increase the price of their services soon, nobody has any idea as to how much extra would consumers need to pay in the days to come. Well, we now have a faint idea about the number.
According to a report, customers of Airtel, Jio and Vodafone Idea could shell an extra 20 per cent on all recharge plans in the future. The report mentions that various sources from the industry have confirmed that a price hike of up to 20 per cent is expected for all recharge plans. However, the price hike will depend on the price of the recharge plans.
Hence, there are chances that cheaper recharge plans could see lesser price hike whereas the more expensive recharge plans offer more data and free calls could now cost an extra 20 per cent. “The telcos are planning to hike the prices on an incremental basis – lower hikes for lower plans and higher hikes for plans,” says the report. This isn’t confirmed though.
That means the telecom operator is likely to have a uniform price hike across all price categories and that could affect those who usually spend less than Rs 100 on phone bills currently.
Jio, Airtel and Vodafone currently offer prepaid recharge plans from as low as Rs 50 and they go all the way up to Rs 10,000. And these include the monthly plans as well as the long-term annual plans. The price hike will also be applicable on separate data vouchers as well as account balance packs, which applies for Airtel and Vodafone Idea customers.
Reliance Jio recently started charging its customers for outgoing calls to other networks after it was unable to bear the losses due to the Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC). Jio customers have to pay 6 paise per minute for making calls to Airtel, Vodafone and BSNL numbers but Jio-to-Jio calls are still free. And Jio customers have to pay at least an extra Rs 10 for using its services.
The mass price hike for telecom service comes after the Supreme Court ruled a decision in favour of the government. All telecom operators will now have to pay AGR that is counted on income from both telecom and non-telecom assets of all operators.
