- by Stocktry Expert
- 26th Aug 2020
Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal asks Subscribers to ‘Prepare to Pay a Lot More’
Sunil Bharti Mittal, founder and Chairman of Bharti Airtel, hinted at big tariff hikes by asking subscribers to ‘prepare to pay a lot more’.
At the launch of a book written by Akhil Gupta, a colleague of his, he said, “You either consume 1.6GB of capacity per month either at this price point (Rs. 160) or you may prepare to pay a lot more. We are not wanting $50-60 like the US or Europe but certainly, $2 for 16GB per month is not sustainable.”
Offering 16GB of data at Rs 160 is a tragedy according to him. He added that users should get 1.6GB at this price. This means the cost of 1GB of data stands at Rs. 100 instead of Rs. 10 now.
This could signify a major tariff hike that’s on the way. Currently, 1GB per day for 24 days is offered by Artel at Rs. 199. This could very well come down to just 2.4GB.
PTI further quoted him saying that the lower end payment should be at least Rs. 100 per month. It would be a more than double hike from the current plan of Rs. 45 per month. This sums up to the base tariffs increasing more than 100%.
He also said that Rs. 300 of average revenue per user (ARPU) is required to make the industry sustainable. “You should see solid ARPUs building up in the next 5-6 months for industry to be sustainable,”
“In six months’ time, we should be crossing the mark of Rs. 200 for sure and Rs. 250 would be ideal,” he added.
