India's private telecom operators increased tariffs by an average 30 percent last week as they struggle to pay thousands of crores in pending statutory dues. Still, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. continues to offer the cheapest plans in most categories.
The Indian carriers increased pricing to ease financial stress in the sector locked in a tariff war ever since Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani launched Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. Last month, the Supreme Court dealt a crippling blow by ruling that the companies will have to include non-core revenue to calculate levies, adding more than Rs 50,000-crore burden on Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone Idea Ltd.
Both the operators increased tariffs and Reliance Jio followed. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea also introduced new cheaper prepaid plans to match Reliance Jio's pricing.
Here's a comparison:
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea offer 1 GB-a-day prepaid plan for Rs 219 each with a validity of 28 days. It's 29.6 percent costlier than similar plans they offered earlier.
Reliance Jio doesn't have a comparable plan as it offers 1 GB a day for Rs 149 but caps the validity at 24 days. Reliance Jio is the cheapest as its users will pay Rs 6.2 for every GB compared with Rs 7.8 charged by its peers.
Reliance Jio increased the tariffs by the most for 1.5 GB-a-day plans that are valid for 28 and 84 days. But it's still the cheapest in this category as well.
There's no difference in pricing between the three operators for plans valid for 56 days.
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, however, increased the tariffs more for plans with a validity of 365 days.
In the 2 GB-a-day category, Reliance Jio continues to offer the cheapest plans of 28- and 84-day validity. It's 84-day plan is the cheapest at Rs 3.6 per GB.
Reliance Jio's tariff is cheaper than Bharti Airtel's for a plan that offers 3 GB of data every day. Vodafone Idea doesn't offer a similar plan.
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