Reliance Jio has taken a strategic step that may be the start of another round of price hikes in India’s telecom industry. The company has discontinued its cheapest prepaid plans, the ₹209 (22 days) and ₹249 (28 days) plans with 1GB data per day.
This adjustment compels Jio customers to move up to the subsequent available plan priced at ₹299, offering 1.5GB daily data with a validity of 28 days. Although at first glance it looks like a small adjustment, industry stakeholders view it as a definite sign of things to come for telecommunication prices in India.
What’s New for Jio Users
As per NDTV Profit, a Jio spokesperson has confirmed that even though these retired plans are no longer available as online recharges, they can still be obtained at retail stores. Thus, this practically reduces Jio’s online base plan to ₹299, which is comparable to rivals Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
The move is especially important since it becomes the industry’s base price point. Earlier, Jio’s lower-priced plans offered more freedom to price-sensitive users, but now all three players begin their prepaid plans from ₹299 for monthly plans.
How Jio Compares to Peers
While the starting price is the same for all operators now, there are still some variations in terms of what is being provided to the customer. Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s ₹299 plans provide only 1GB a day, and therefore, Jio’s offer is marginally better with 1.5GB a day data.
This implies that Jio’s offer is better even at the higher price.
The standardization at ₹299 is a major change in the telecom sector, thereby increasing the minimum spend by a customer on a monthly basis for obtaining a good data allowance through prepaid plans.
Industry experts are not considering this to be an isolated event. They anticipate this discontinuation of plans to be the harbinger of higher tariff increases in the pipeline between October 2025 and January 2026.
ICRA rating agency’s Ankit Jain is of the opinion that although hikes are certain, they might not be as large as the aggressive hikes in the previous year. “A tariff hike is certain. We are expecting it to be lower than the previous year, less than 15-20%,” said Jain. That would be relief from the 19-21% hikes customers witnessed in 2024.
The frequency of doing so may also vary. “Operators in the future may raise tariffs more frequently than once every two years,” said the ICRA analyst, which implies that customers need to get ready for price hikes more frequently.
Why Are Prices Going Up?
The demand for increased tariffs is not merely a matter of margins. All three of the large operators – Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea – are heavily investing in 5G network rollout and require improved cash flows to finance such investment. They’ve also spent a great deal on spectrum purchases, which must be generating them huge returns.
Reliance Jio, while not providing any concrete timelines, has consistently maintained that tariff changes are needed to facilitate the continuation of network expansion and improvement in service quality.
In the event of the anticipated price increase, market experts are estimating that the average revenue per user (ARPU) would go up from the existing ₹200 in FY25 to nearly ₹220 in FY26.
The most recent big round of tariff hikes in 2024 had witnessed some subscribers shifting to BSNL, the state-owned telecom player. But analysts are convinced private operators have learned their lesson and won’t tweak plan validity this time. Instead, they’re most likely to tweak headline price hikes while offering the same service period.
This strategic approach can help alleviate customer churn while still providing the revenue levels operators need to support ongoing infrastructure spending. For consumers, it means adjusting to paying more for the same services, but hopefully for better network quality and faster speeds as 5G rollouts continue around the country.
