12 days after it announced that it was hiking tariffs, Airtel announced its updated prepaid plans. This comes just hours after Vodafone Idea announced its updated plans.
Airtel’s updated plans will apply from December 3.
“Our new mobile plans offer tremendous value to our customers and are backed by a superior network experience on Airtel’s nationwide 4G network. Airtel will continue to make large investments in emerging technologies and digital platforms to deliver world-class experiences to our customers,” Shashwat Sharma the Chief Marketing Officer said in a statement.
New plans:
In a statement, the company said that the increase was between 50p/day to Rs 2.85/day, which translates to an increase of Rs 15-Rs 85 per month.
“In addition, Airtel provides exclusive benefits as part of the Airtel Thanks platform, which enables access to premium content from Airtel Xstream (10,000 movies, exclusive shows, and
400 TV channels), Wynk Music, device protection, anti-virus protection and much more,” the company said.
Airtel posted a net loss of Rs 23,045 crore in Q2 amid an adverse Supreme Court ruling on adjusted gross revenue (AGR). In November, both Airtel and Vodafone Idea had announced that they will be raising tariffs in December.
The telcos have also filed for a review of the apex court's order on AGR, after the Cabinet decision cleared a two-year moratorium on spectrum payments but did not give any relief on the AGR front. The government announced in Parliament that there is no consideration on its part to go for a waiver on any component of the Supreme Court's AGR order.
As per the Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's replies in Parliament, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and other telecom companies owe the government as much as Rs 1.47 lakh crore in past statutory dues. In replies to separate questions in the Lok Sabha, Prasad said telecom companies owe the government Rs 92,642 crore in unpaid licence fees, and another Rs 55,054 crore in outstanding spectrum usage charges.