After Vodafone Idea and Airtel announced tariff hikes, Jio too has joined the bandwagon and has announced that it will be increasing its tariffs by 40%.
Jio has announced that it will be introducing new all-in-one plans with unlimited voice and data. These plans will have a fair usage policy for calls to other mobile networks. These plans will be announced and will be applicable from December 6, 2019.
Jio claims that while these all-in-one plans will be priced 40% higher, Jio customers will get up to 300% more benefits.
However, what these benefits are, haven’t been announced yet.
“While remaining committed to the ultimate interest of the consumer, Jio will take all necessary steps to help sustain the Indian telecommunications industry. Jio will continue to work with the Government on the consultation process for revision of telecom tariffs and looks forward to participation from all other stakeholders,” the company said in a statement.
On Sunday, Vodafone Idea and Airtel too, announced a hike in tariffs and introduced new plans. Airtel’s new plans, which will be applicable from December 3 will see an increase in prices between 50p/day to Rs 2.85/day, which translates to an increase of Rs 15-Rs 85 per month.
Hike in tariffs come after the Supreme Court order on Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) in which telecom operators have to shell out a whopping Rs 92,000 crore in total in past dues at a time when they are grappling with tough competition, debt pressure and shrinking revenues.
After provisioning for AGR, Vodafone Idea posted a massive loss — the biggest loss in India’s corporate history — of Rs 50,921 crore in Q2 FY20.
Multiple telcos have filed review petitions with the court. This comes after the recent Cabinet decision cleared a two-year moratorium on spectrum payments but did not give any relief on the AGR front and the government announced in the Parliament that there is no consideration on its part to go for a waiver on any component of the Supreme Court's AGR order.