India’s telecom tariff battle is back in play after an over two-year lull in postpaid charge revisions. Bharti Airtel Ltd has raised prices across postpaid plans by 3-11%, a move that could possibly trigger a fresh round of industry-wide hikes in the chase for higher user spends.
Bharti Airtel, India’s second largest telecom operator by market share, has increased its tariffs by ₹50 across all its postpaid plans, also introducing its added benefit of free international roaming, Fast Lane technology, safety features and entertainment, the company said in a release on Wednesday. The new tariffs will kick in on 8 October.
Airtel’s move comes just weeks ahead of the expected initial public offering (IPO) of Jio Platforms, the parent of Reliance Jio, the market leader by subscribers. A tariff increase can lift Airtel’s revenues—and, in turn, valuations—putting pressure on Jio to follow suit as it prepares to sell shares to public investors.
For India’s telecom industry, hiking tariffs and pushing subscribers up the value chain is the only way to bump up their revenues.
Airtel had last raised its headline tariffs in June 2024, after a gap of two years, following Jio. The same was driven by the industry’s move to improve return on capital employed and Arpu. Airtel’s postpaid hikes in 2024 were in the 13-20% range. That year, the tariff hikes were led by Jio, and its private sector peers Airtel and Vodafone Idea took cue.
Airtel currently has six postpaid plans. The ₹449-postpaid plan will now come for ₹499, including bundling subscriptions of Xstream Play Premium and Google One and one free international roaming trip per SIM per year. In the higher tier, the current ₹1,749-plan will come for ₹1,799, which includes OTT subscriptions and other benefits.
At the end of the June quarter, Airtel had 30 million postpaid users, which is 8% of its India mobile subscriber base of 376.5 million.
Industry experts believe the latest tariff hike is unlikely to bring any major boost for its average revenue per user (Arpu), the key measurable of an operator’s muscle.
“Airtel has only 30 million postpaid users, so the tariff hike is unlikely to have a major impact on its blended Arpu,” said Parag Kar, an independent telecom analyst. “The maximum increase in Airtel’s Arpu is likely to be about ₹4, or 1.5% of its current Arpu of ₹264.”
“What Airtel may be counting on is that it can sustain the tariff hike without losing customers to Vodafone Idea, particularly as it rolls out its Fast Lane technology,” Kar said.
Fast Lane is Airtel’s premium postpaid service that uses 5G network slicing to give users priority access to network capacity during congestion.
Arpu shows whether an operator has paying customers and if so, then whether they are willing to pay a high price plan for the services offered. In comparison with Airtel’s industry leading Arpu, Reliance Jio’s was at ₹215.6 a month end June, while that of Vodafone Idea was at ₹177.
Emails sent to Reliance and Vodafone Idea were not immediately answered.
Airtel’s postpaid tariff hike comes two months after its August move to scrap the entry-level ₹299 monthly prepaid plan that offered 1 GB data per day. To get a daily data allowance for 28 days, subscribers must now upgrade to the ₹349 plan, marking a ₹50 (16.7%) increase for an offering that includes 1.5 GB daily data and unlimited 5G access.
Separately in August, also removed its ₹319 (30-day), ₹579, ₹619, and ₹649 prepaid plans.
Airtel’s pricing actions of August did not lead to follow-up moves by rivals.
Vodafone Idea retained its base tariff plan of ₹299 offering 1 GB data daily, whereas Reliance Jio, which offers 1.5 GB per day data, also stuck with its ₹299 entry-level plan. Interestingly, with a one-time charge of ₹300 in the Jio Prime membership plan, Reliance Jio offers users protection against any tariff hike for the next one year at a one-time charge of ₹300 through the Jio Prime membership programme.
In August 2025, Reliance Jio, the largest operator by market share, had removed its entry-level ₹249 prepaid plan (1GB daily data) from online platforms, a move subsequently matched by Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
Idea in a bid to shore up its market share, had last month introduced free international roaming across its select postpaid, prepaid and enterprise plans.