‘Elbow room for 5G rollout’: Bharti Airtel hikes prepaid mobile tariffs from Nov 26
Telecom giant Bharti Airtel on Monday said it will increase rates of its prepaid mobile plans by at least 20 per cent later this week. The company said the move will give Airtel the elbow room to roll out 5G in India.
Airtel’s cheapest mobile plan will now start at ₹99 for 28 days, 25 per cent more than the current price of ₹79. On the other hand, the costliest plan will be priced at ₹2,999 for 365 days, a Livemint article said.
Tariffs of 11 other mobile plans and three data packages will also be raised by 20 per cent. The new plans will be effective from Friday (November 26).
“Bharti Airtel has always maintained that the mobile Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) needs to be at ₹200 and ultimately at ₹300, so as to provide a reasonable return on capital that allows for a financially healthy business model," the company said in the statement.
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It is said that this level of ARPU will enable substantial investments required in networks and spectrum. “Even more important, this will give Airtel the elbow room to roll out 5G in India,” the statement added.
In the latest quarterly earnings in November, Bharti Airtel reported a mobile APRU of ₹153.
A report in Bloomberg said the tariff hike is likely to improve Airtel's net debt-to-earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) metric.
Moments after the announcement of a hike in prepaid tariffs, shares of Bharti Airtel rose as much as 5.8 per cent to a record high of ₹755.95.