Airtel, Voda Idea and Jio to hike mobile, data tariffs by up to 40%

Tariff hike for Airtel and Vodafone will be effective from Dec 3, while for Jio the new rates will be applicable from Dec 6

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea on Sunday announced a tariff hike in the range of 15 per cent and 40 per cent across different plans. The tariff hike by both companies will be applicable from December 3, 2019. Vodafone Idea on Sunday said its new plans for its prepaid products and services would be available across India, starting 00:00 hours of December 3, 2019.

Airtel’s new plans represent tariff increases in the range of a mere 50 paise per day to Rs 2.85 per day and offer generous data and calling benefits. “Our new mobile plans offer tremendous value to our customers and are backed by a superior network experience on Airtel’s nationwide 4G Shashwat Sharma, chief marketing officer, Bharti Airtel, said in the statement.

Reliance Jio also said it would be introducing new plans with unlimited voice and data. These plans will have a fair usage policy for calls to other mobile networks. The new plans will be effective from December 6, 2019. “Although the new all-in-one plans will be priced up to 40 per cent higher, staying true to its promise of being customer-first, Reliance Jio customers will get up to 300 per cent more benefits,” Reliance Jio said in a release.

Vodafone Idea reported a massive pre-tax loss of Rs 36,959 crore in Q2 after it provided for payments related to AGR. The company took a hit of Rs 30,774 crore (including AGR) for the quarter. This led to a loss of Rs 50,922 crore at the net level — the highest-ever for an Indian company. The company had posted a loss of Rs 4,974 crore in the year-ago quarter, while the loss in the April-June quarter was Rs 4,874 crore….