Reliance Jio hikes JioPhone tariffs by 20 per cent affecting 100 mn users

India's leading telecom company, Reliance Jio, has raised its JioPhone tariffs by 20 per cent, as per media reports.

As per an ET Now report, Jio, which has a subscriber base of over 400 million, has hiked the tariffs for JioPhone by 20 per cent. The company has over 100 million JioPhone users, as per the report.
JioPhones are 4G and VoLTE enabled feature phones from Reliance that work only on the Reliance Jio network.

Rs 155 plan with a validity of 28 days will now cost Rs 186. Likewise, the Rs 185 plan with a validity of 28 days and 2GB of data per day will now cost the consumers Rs 222. Similarly, the Rs 749 plan with a validity of 336 days will now cost Rs 899, an increase of 20 per cent.

However, the tariff hike is not a surprising move.

A CRISIL report in May said that the top three private telecom operators in India are likely to resort to another round of tariff hikes in the second half of the current fiscal. This tariff hike would help them close FY23 with revenue growth of 20-25 per cent.

The report added that growth in average revenue per user (ARPU) is essential for the industry to invest in network and spectrum, failing which service offerings will be affected.

Reliance Jio saw its total subscriber base fall sharply between August 2021 and February 2022. However, the share of its active subscribers reached 94 per cent in March 2022, compared with 78 per cent in the first quarter of last fiscal.

The telecom players are expected to spend incrementally on the network and regulatory capex in FY23. Therefore ARPU growth and tariff hikes could ease some pressure on their books, the report added.