Phone Recharge Tariff Hike: India’s big telecom companies Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea may increase the prices of both prepaid and postpaid plans by up to 20 percent next year. This is part of the regular tariff revision. This is expected to increase the earnings of the telecom industry.
Morgan Stanley has said in its report that telecom companies can increase tariffs by 16-20 percent on both prepaid and postpaid 4G/5G plans in 2026. Due to this, the earnings of companies are expected to increase in the financial year 2027. Additionally, the average ARPU earned from each customer will also increase significantly. To increase their revenue, companies are removing cheap plans and putting benefits like OTT in the basket of expensive plans. In such a situation, customers will be forced to choose expensive plans and this will affect their pockets.
Who will benefit most?
It is being told that telecom company Airtel will benefit the most from this tariff hike. Morgan Stanley has said in its report that earlier when tariffs were increased, Bharti Airtel was among those companies which had benefited in revenue/EBITDA compared to many weaker companies.
Airtel, along with Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi), has increased prepaid prices three times in recent years. During that time, the companies had said that this increase is necessary to keep the telecom business healthy and to invest in 5G network.
How much had the prices increased earlier?
In the year 2019, the prices were increased from 15 percent to 50 percent. In 2021, prices increased in the range of 20 to 25 percent. At the same time, last year in 2024 the prices were increased by 10-20 percent. This year also the price was expected to increase by 15 percent, but this has not happened yet.
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