Just a day after Airtel's announcement increasing prepaid plan prices, Vodafone Idea has also followed suit. The prices of all popular Vodafone Idea plans have been hiked by 20 to 25%. The new rates will be applicable from November 25. Most of the entry-level plans have seen a surge of 25% in cost. On the other hand, the bundle plans, including data, calling, and SMS, have seen a 20% hike.
The concerted surge in the prepaid plans are due to the pressure that the telcos have been facing for a while. Increasing the price is going to help Vodafone Idea in generating more revenue and remove the financial stress. Moreover, the revenue will also help the brand in scaling up as the deployment of 5G will require a strong financial commitment.
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Vodafone Idea prepaid plan prices
The cheapest plan of Vodafone Idea available at a price of Rs 79 will now be available at Rs 99, and it will offer talktime worth Rs 99, 200MB data, and one paisa per second voice tariff. Bundled plans like Rs 149 that offer unlimited calling, 2GB data, 300 SMS with 28 days validity will now be available at a price of Rs 179. The Rs 599 plan that offers 84-days validity, unlimited calling, 100 SMS per day, and 1.5GB data per day will be available at Rs 719.
Vodafone Idea to improve ARPU
Considering the current scenario, Vodafone has the lowest average revenue per user (ARPU), Rs 104, in the Indian telecom market. The new plans introduced by the company would kickstart the ARPU boosting. As per stats, these new prices introduced by Airtel and Vodafone Idea are going to have an impact on almost 50% of mobile phone users.
Both Vodafone Idea CEO Ravinder Takkar and Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal have been vocal about raising the tariffs. Ravinder Takkar said that Vodafone Idea would not shy away when it comes to raising the tariff prices. Meanwhile, Sunil Mittal has clearly said that the current ARPU average of Rs 150 is unsustainable. He further added that the industry really needs to get back to a minimum of Rs 200 ARPU. He concluded by saying that Airtel will look to reaching Rs 300 ARPU in the long term.
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