This year, telecom companies will not increase mobile tariffs much, despite the fact that they have made large investments in launching 5G. Nevertheless, in order to increase their income, the companies can focus on high-end subscribers, marking an end to base plans. Prior to this, it was being anticipated that telecom companies will increase the tariff after 5G launch.
The information of a new trend emerging has been provided by global research agency JP Morgan’s report, ‘India Telecom 2023’. As per which, out of the 3 private telecom companies of the country, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio will focus on saving market shares and increasing them. Both the companies have offered 5G with a 4G pack and are skirting imposing premium tariffs for 5G.
As per JP Morgan, after spending hefty amounts on 5G, it is crucial for the companies to augment their earnings, which can be done in three ways. First, directly increasing tariffs, second, indirectly increasing the tariffs by removing base plans, and third, earning by reducing the cost per GB, so that the data consumption increases.
According to the report, there is a threat of the customer base getting reduced for the companies if tariffs are increased directly. These companies have already increased the tariffs by 20% in the last year, and another hike will most probably not be tolerated by the customers. At the same time, increasing income by reducing per GB data cost is not practical. In the wake of this situation, companies can end the basic and cheap plans.
The report further states that in order to attract 5G customers, Jio can launch an unlimited data plan, and this year, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio will pay more attention to their high-end postpaid customers, and both will try to attract the high-end customers of Vodafone-Idea. Jio’s complete focus will be on the high-end postpaid customers rather than on the pre-paid customers with lesser data consumption.
