Bharti Airtel has removed its base recharge plan of Rs 99 from 19 circles across Maharashtra and Kerala. Users living in these Indian states will now have to recharge with a minimum plan of Rs 155 to keep their SIM cards active. The telecom operator started scrapping its Rs 99 plan in November 2022 and discontinued the plan in Odisha and Haryana.
Later in January 2023, Airtel removed its base recharge plan of Rs 99 in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, HP, Rajasthan, Northeast, Karnataka, and UP-West. Now, the Rs 99 plan is not available in more circles and the new entry-level plan is listed at the price of Rs 155.
The entry-level plan of Rs 99 offered a talk time of Rs 99 with 2.5 paise per second and 200MB data for 28 days. However, with the upgraded base plan, Airtel has increased the price of its base plan by 57 per cent. The new entry level plan of Rs 155 will offer users unlimited calling, 300 SMS, 1GB data for 24 days with added benefits of free Wynk Music and Hellotunes.
While the Rs 99 was a little affordable and offered more validity, the Rs 155 offered more value. But it will still be pricier for some users, especially for customers who use Airtel as a secondary SIM and just want a cheaper recharge plan to continue using the network services.
It is being said that Airtel is revising its tariffs in order to increase the revenue margins of the company. Telecom giants like Jio and Airtel are expected to change and increase the prices of their existing plans by 10 per cent. A report by Business insider suggest that Jio, Airtel and other telecom operators might announce a 10 per cent hike in tariffs in the next 3 years i.e. Q4 of FY23, FY24 & FY25. So users might see a constant price hike of mobile recharge plans after every fourth quarter of the coming years.
According to 91 Mobiles, while telecom operators are planning to hike prices, Jio might pause in increasing the pricing given the loss of active users every month. However, Airtel might not be much impacted as it is gaining more users compared to its rival Jio. Notably, it started to test the Rs 155 plan as an entry level pack in November in Haryana and Odisha.
Further, a report by ET suggests that the telecom operator added 0.1 million and 0.2 million active users in December 2022 in the same circles. Airtel managed to increase its active user base by 6 million during the same period. Which means, despite the new tariff hikes, Airtel saw an incline in its active user base. Airtel
