A day after Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd announced a hike in their call and data charges from next month, Reliance Jio announced on Tuesday that they would also do the same.
In a statement, the company said that TRAI is likely to initiative a consultation process for revision of telecom tariffs. It added that “Like other operators, we will also work with the government and comply with the regulatory regime to strengthen the industry to benefit Indian consumers and take measures including appropriate increase in tariffs in next few weeks in a manner that does not adversely impact data consumption or growth in digital adoption and sustains investments.”
Jio said that they remain committed to driving the Digital India vision, which they feel would only become possible if India is made “2G-mukt”.
The company had also recently announced that it would charge six paise per minute for calls made to other networks.
On Monday, Vodafone Idea had announced that it would be raising its tariffs “to ensure that …customers continue to enjoy world-class digital experiences,” with the hikes to become effective from December 1, 2019. The announcement came after the company declared the single-biggest loss ever for an Indian corporate of Rs 50,2901 crore, on account of the liability it faced as a result of a Supreme Court order in the adjusted gross revenue case.
Similarly, Bharti Airtel had also announced an upcoming hike, saying that the TRAI would soon initiate a consultation for “bringing rationality in pricing in the Indian mobile sector, which has been operating at prices that have been eroding the viability of the sector.”
While the quantum of the hike has not been announced, experts predict it could be in the range of 15 per cent.
The news came as TRAI data showed both Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel losing over 49 lakh users in September this year, while Reliance Jio gained 69.83 lakh new users.
According to the TRAI, total wireless subscribers (GSM, CDMA and LTE) increased to 117.33 crore by the end of September 2019, up from 117.1 crore from the end of August.
While Airtel lost 23.8 lakh subscribers in September taking its total user base to 32.55 crore, Vodafone Idea lost 25.7 lakh users taking its user base to 37.24 crore. Reliance Jio, however, added 69.83 lakh users taking its total user base to 35.52 crore.
Vodafone Idea’s market share was now 31.73 per cent, Airtel’s 27.74 per cent, and Reliance Jio’s 30.26 per cent.
With inputs from PTI
