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Reliance Jio Announces Tariff Hike Following Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea

Reliance Jio says it will take ‘appropriate increase in tariffs’ in the next few weeks.

Traffic travels past a billboard for Reliance Jio in the Bandra area of Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
Traffic travels past a billboard for Reliance Jio in the Bandra area of Mumbai, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. announced tariff hikes a day after peers Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone Idea Ltd. said they would charge subscribers more from next month.

Jio will take “appropriate increase in tariffs” in next few weeks, the country’s largest telecom operator said in an exchange filing, adding that such increase in prices would be in a manner that does not adversely impact data consumption or growth in digital adoption. The Mukesh Ambani-led company, however, did not disclose the quantum of increase in tariffs.

The other two private telecom companies—Airtel and Vodafone Idea—had announced plans to increase tariffs from next month after the Supreme Court ordered India’s struggling wireless operators to pay pending dues worth thousands of crores.

The government has also set up a committee of secretaries to suggest measures to mitigate financial stress in the sector as Airtel and Vodafone Idea reported huge losses in the second quarter, flagging off concerns of continuing operations on the back of the adjusted gross revenue dues.

Reliance Jio had last month said it will charge customers 6 paise per minute for voice calls made to rival phone networks, but added that it will compensate them by giving free data of equal value.

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