Not Just Airtel & Vodafone, Jio to Also Hike Mobile Plan Tariffs

Jio is the leading telecom player in the country but it has also decided it’s time for user to pay more for its data

Jio is the leading and the only profitable telecom player in the country right now.

(Photo: The Quint)

Reliance Jio users will also have to pay more for their mobile data plans, as the telco is the latest player to announce hike in its mobile tariffs. The company on Tuesday has confirmed this change, which will most likely come into effect from first week of December.

Jio claims it is doing this to achieve the ambitious objectives of the ‘Digital India’ mission, for which it wants to make India a 2G-free market in the shortest possible time frame.

These changes come at a time when the Indian telecom sector has been struggling to keep itself afloat, with mounting losses and debt piling on pressure, especially on Airtel and Vodafone Idea. But, it’s strange to see Jio also following its competitor’s footsteps and hiking tariffs for its users, when it doesn’t exactly have a lot of debt which is to be paid in the coming months.

Jio currently caters to over 350 million users in the country, giving it the leadership position in a market, where it competes with Airtel and Vodafone. It seems that Jio is taking advantage of other telcos increasing prices, and decided that it might be a good time for them to increase it as well.

Like other operators, we will also work with the Government and comply with the regulatory regime to strengthen the industry to benefit Indian consumers and take measures including appropriate increase in tariffs in next few weeks in a manner that does not adversely impact data consumption or growth in digital adoption and sustains investments.

Reliance Jio statement

And just like the other telcos are to increase mobile plan tariffs, Jio hasn’t shared how much will the increase be for the end customer. Most likely all the three telcos will now wait and watch for each other to publicly share details first, and then maybe revise or announce their own plan changes.

But there’s a difference between the users that are on Jio, and other networks. Most people signed up with Jio because of its promise to be affordable, and offer more than its rivals.

Now it remains to be seen if Jio can live up to that promise after recent series of events. After all, few months back Jio decided to start charging for voice calls, even though it had promised to offer free voice calls forever during its commercial launch few years back.