Airtel plans tariff hike post LS poll

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are likely to adopt different strategies with regard to tariff hikes post the parliamentary elections. According to company executives, while Bharti Airtel will go for a hike in headline tariffs, Jio may not do the same. Instead, the company will bank on measures promoting higher data consumption, leading users to move to higher packs, which will see an improvement in its average revenue per user (Arpu).

Since Bharti’s tariffs are already at a premium compared to Jio, the gap between the two will rise. Jio, which saw its Arpu flat on a sequential basis in the October-December quarter, thus hopes that it will gain from subscriber churn from Bharti,