Early signs of tariff hike encouraging, no major impact on telecom users: Vittal

NEW DELHI: The early signs of the tariff hike by telecom service providers are encouraging, and it has not had a significant impact on telecom subscribers, said Gopal Vittal, managing director of Bharti Airtel, on Tuesday.

Vittal, speaking during the company’s first quarterly earnings call, noted that there was no major SIM consolidation following the tariff hike in July 2024, except for a slight impact at the lower end of the market, particularly among 2G users.

“The industry undertook a round of tariff hike in early July 2024, which was much needed for the financial health of the industry. The early signs from this repair are encouraging… I do want to underscore that the industry needs a minimum Rs 300 ARPU (average revenue per user) for long term, sustainable investment, and respectable return ratios,” said Vittal.

In July 2024, all three major private telcos —Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea — announced tariff hikes ranging 10% to 25%. The last such raise occurred in November 2021. This time, Jio led with the tariff increase of 12-25%, followed by Airtel with hikes ranging from 11% to 21% across its prepaid and postpaid plans.