- Airtel has hiked the prices of its prepaid recharge plans in India by up to 25 percent.
- The new recharge plans prices will be effective for customers from November 26th.
- Airtel recharge plans now start at Rs 99 and go all the way up to Rs 2999.
Bharti Airtel has increased the prices of its prepaid recharge plans in India and the cheapest plan now starts at Rs 99. The company says that it has always maintained that the mobile Average Revenue Per User needs to be at Rs 200 and ultimately at Rs 300 to offer a reasonable return on capital for a financially healthy business model. Most importantly, this will allow room for itself to roll out 5G network in India. The new Airtel recharge plans prices will be effective from November 26th, said the company. Airtel had revised its postpaid recharge plans for corporate and retail customers back in July.
Airtel has spiked the base recharge plan from Rs 79 to Rs 99, but it doesn’t offer any SMS benefits. For SMS, users need to recharge with the Airtel Rs 179 plans (which earlier used to be Rs 149) plan. All in all, Airtel prepaid plans have seen up to a 25 percent price hike this time around. The popular Rs 598 plan which offers 1.5GB per day, unlimited voice calls, and 100 SMS per day with 84 days validity will now cost Rs 719. Airtel says the changes to its prepaid recharge plans are in line with its focus to offer better connectivity.
Other telecom networks, Jio and Vi (Vodafone Idea) haven’t announced any price hike at the moment but we can expect an official confirmation from them in the next few days, if not even sooner. We can speculate Jio offerings will come with other additional benefits like more data or access to OTT platforms. This announcement from Airtel comes just days after it was reportedly granted an extension for 5G trials in the country.
