Jio, Airtel will have to hike tariffs to support high network investment, 5G rollout in medium-term: Analysts

NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel will have to take price hikes to support network investments and 5G roll out in the medium-term. However, they are unlikely to hike tariffs to offset the higher spectrum investment in the near-term, analysts said. They added that the initiative for tariff hike is expected to come from Vodafone Idea as it is the most in need of it.

“RIL management is unlikely to take a knee-jerk reaction of raising tariffs just because it spent more in auctions; while in the medium-term RIL is keen to raise tariffs, we believe in the near term, RIL focus could be gaining subs especially on 2G. Both RIL and Bharti, in our view, will focus on improving their market share in the near term given their stronger balance sheets as compared to VIL,” BoFa Securities said in a note on Wednesday.