After Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone Idea Ltd., now Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. hiked prices of its prepaid plans. Yet, that’s at least 13% cheaper than peers.
“In line with its commitment to further strengthen a sustainable telecom industry… Jio announced its new unlimited plans,” the Mukesh Ambani-led carrier said in a media statement. Jio, it said, reaffirmed its “customer-first commitment through new plans”, and upheld the “promise of providing the best-quality service at the lowest price globally”.
The entry-level JioPhone plan will cost Rs 91 compared with Rs 75 earlier.
Prices of unlimited voice and data packs have been raised by 20%.
The unlimited voice pack for 24 days will cost Rs 179 compared with Rs 149 earlier.
The 28-day pack will start from Rs 155 against Rs 129 earlier.
The 56-day pack will start from Rs 479 compared with Rs 399 earlier.
The 84-day plan will start from Rs 395 as opposed to Rs 329 earlier.
The higher-end 336-day plan will cost Rs 1,559 against Rs 1,299 earlier.
The minimum data add-on plan will cost Rs 61, up from Rs 51 earlier.
These prices, effective Dec. 1, 2021, are cheaper than the comparable plans of Bharti Airtel and Vi.
The 28-day plan of Reliance Jio is at a 13.4% discount.
The entry-level 84-day plan is 13.2% and 13.9% cheaper.
The starting high-end plan is 13.3% less, though this is not directly comparable as it offers a validity of 336 days compared to Bharti Airtel and Vi’s 365-day validity.
Motilal Oswal, in its Nov. 22 report, had estimated that a similar price hike would “increase Reliance Jio’s Ebitda by 23%”.
UBS sees a gradual increase in sector ARPUs of 10% annually over FY22-24E, driven by a combination of secular trends such as 2G to 4G / prepaid to postpaid migration, as well as gradual tariff increases. It estimates that if all operators increase tariffs, such ARPU expansion will be possible in a shorter time frame (next two-three quarters).
Reliance Jio’s average revenue per user—the amount an operator earns per subscriber per month—rose 3.7% sequentially to Rs 143.6 per month in the quarter ended September. ARPUs of peers Bharti Airtel and Vi, too, increased during the period.