After Airtel hikes tariff, Vodafone Idea follows suit

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: A day after Bharti Airtel announced its new tariff for pre-paid customers, Vodafone Idea (Vi) today stated it would hike pre-paid plan tariff from November 25.

Vodafone Idea increased tariffed voice plan rate from Rs 79 to Rs 99 with a validity for 28 days. It hiked the plan for unlimited voice bundles to Rs 179 from Rs 149 with a validity of 28 days.

The 365-day validity plan with 24 GB data rate was hiked to Rs 1799 from Rs 1,499. Similarly, tariff for another 365-day validity plan with 1.5 GB/day data was increased to Rs 2,899 from Rs 2,399.

Tariff for data top-ups with 3 GB data and 28 days validity will be charged at Rs 58 as compared to Rs 48 earlier. Vodafone Idea hiked the 56-day validity plan with 100 GB data from Rs 351 to Rs 418.

On November 22, Bharti Airtel announced it would raise the prepaid tariffs by around 20 per cent. Airtel’s new tariffs will come into effect from November 26, 2021.

“Bharti Airtel has always maintained that the mobile ‘Average Revenue Per User’ (ARPU) needs to be at Rs 200 and ultimately at Rs 300, so as to provide a reasonable return on capital that allows for a financially healthy business model,” the telecom service provider said in a regulatory filing.

“We also believe that this level of ‘ARPU’ will enable the substantial investments required in networks and spectrum. Even more important, this will give Airtel the elbow room to roll out 5G in India.”

Bharti Airtel further said in its filing the revision is part of their “rebalancing” of tariffs.