Private telecom players including Bharti Airtel (Airtel) and Reliance Jio (Jio) may go in for another tariff hike as early as July-August, much before the November-December timeline suggested by some analysts earlier.

The telcos announced major tariff hikes in July last year. According to reports, while Airtel’s average revenue per user (ARPU) may grow 5 per cent quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), Jio’s ARPU may jump 3.8 per cent QoQ.

“Telcos, especially Airtel and Jio, are keen to raise tariffs. Doing it sooner is attractive and poses no real risk given the lower market competition and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI’s) ‘forbearance’ on tariffs. Vodafone and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) are struggling and have limited incentive to capitalise on the situation by keeping tariffs low and increasing their market share,” Mahesh Uppal, Director at Com First (India), told businessline.

Last year in July, Airtel was the first to announce a major tariff hike, followed by Jio and Vodafone-Idea, all of them increasing the rates between 10 and 27 per cent.

Airtel raised the prepaid tariff on its minimum plan to ₹199 for 28 days, as compared with ₹179 earlier; the price of the minimum postpaid plan was raised to ₹449 from ₹399 earlier.

The move impacted their customer base initially, with State-owned BSNL, which was the only telco not to increase tariffs, gaining subscribers. But, the private companies managed to recover their customer base in due course.

For instance, BSNL’s subscriber base, which was at 86.8 million in April 2024, grew to 91.8 million as of September 30, 2024.

However, according to TRAI’s latest data, BSNL reported a decline of more than 1.35 lakh subscribers in May 2025, whereas Airtel had a net addition of more than 2.5 lakh subscribers and Jio a net addition of 27 lakh subscribers. Vodafone-Idea’s subscriber base has continued to decline; it lost more than 2.74 lakh subscribers during the month.

In an investor call after the fourth quarter results (ended March 31, 2025), Gopal Vittal, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel, said India’s mobile tariffs are among the lowest globally and need “further repair”.

“We have also said that the current telecom tariff structure in India is broken, with a one-size-fits all pricing model, which is not appropriate for upgradation, nor is it in line with any other market. Restructuring the tariff architecture is essential to improve the financial health of the industry and sustain future investments,” he had said.

Akshaya Moondra, CEO, Vodafone Idea, had also said in an investor call that telcos in India can hike tariffs at a gap of nine months because of its unique market conditions.

“In the normal scenario, the ideal time gap between two tariff hikes would be one year. However, in India, where the telecom industry is today…I would justify that a nine-month gap could also be acceptable,” Moondra said.

Published on June 27, 2025