Chairman of Bharti Airtel, Sunil Bharti Mittal, indicated a substantial hike in tariffs very soon. At an event, Mittal asked subscribers of Airtel to “prepare to pay a lot more.” Instead of getting 16 GB of data for Rs. 160, Mittal suggested users should only get 1.6 GB. That means Airtel is looking to ask Rs 100 for every 1 GB consumed by its subscribers.
According to PTI, Mittal said at an event, “You either consume 1.6GB of capacity per month either at this price point or you may prepare to pay a lot more, We don’t want $50-60 (roughly Rs. 3,700 – Rs. 4,400) like the US or Europe but certainly, $2 (roughly Rs. 160) for 16GB a month is not sustainable.”
According to PTI, Mittal said demanding Rs. 160 for 16 GB of data was a tragedy for the business. At this price point, consumers should only get 1.6 GB of data. Meaning that Mittal expects consumers to pay Rs 100 per GB. Currently, Airtel offers 1 GB of daily data for 24 days for Rs. 199 to put things in perspective. In future Airtel, Users may get only 2.4 GB of data for the entire validity period for this plan.
Mittal adds that for the business to be sustainable the ideal average revenue per user (ARPU) should be at Rs. 300 per month and the Bharti Airtel chairman wants the ARPU to cross at least Rs. 200 in six months.
“We need an Rs. 300 ARPU in which you will still have a lower end at Rs. 100 a month with a decent amount of data. But if your consumption is largely around watching TV, movies, entertainment, and depriving other vital special services networks, then you need to pay for that,” Mittal said. He made those statements at Bharti Enterprises executive Akhil Gupta’s book launch event.
According to PTI report, in June this year, Airtel has seen an increase in ARPU to Rs. 157, after it increased the tariffs in December last year. However, Airtel is looking to increase prices even further in order to achieve a sustainable model.
Source: NDTV
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