Beginning July 3, Jio’s new rates will be implemented, affecting its more than 472 million users. The Rs 155 plan will presently cost Rs 189, while the famous Rs 239 month to month plan, offering 1.5 GB data each day, will be updated to Rs 299, a 25% growth. The yearly package will see the highest hike, from Rs 2,999 to Rs 3,599.

Reliance Jio announced tariff hikes going from 12% to 25% on its mobile plans, marking the first increase in prices since December 2021. The updated plans include higher costs for popular data packages.

Reliance Jio on Thursday, June 27, announced a tariff hike going from 12% to 25% on its prepaid and postpaid plans — the first expansion in price in more than two years. The new plans will become effective from July 3.

The most active plan saw the sharpest hike— 28 days validity with 1.5 GB of data each day. One more popular plan, which came with a validity of 84 days, saw an increment of 20% from ₹799.

Jio Revised Plans:

The announcement comes a day after Jio acquired 14.4 MHz of spectrum in the 1800 MHz band, amounting to ₹973 crore, in the just-concluded auction.

India’s spectrum auction concluded within a few hours of bidding on Day 2 on June 26, with telecom service providers (TSPs or telcos) buying over ₹11,300 crore worth of radio waves in all, which is just 12% of the ₹96,238 crore minimum value that the government had estimated for the spectrum on offer.

Experts suggest the telecom sector is set to witness an eventful second half of the year, given the impending tariff hikes — Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have yet to announce hikes but will surely follow — and potential 5G monetisation, among other expected events.

The last hike was seen in December 2021, when rates were increased by 20%.

At least a 20-25% increase should occur within a year, said Prashant Singhal, a telecom expert, in an interview with CNBC-TV18. He mentioned that the current tariffs are unsustainable given the high data consumption — including free 5G speeds — and potential misuse.

Just two days earlier, Singhal had predicted a tariff hike within the next 30 days. He highlighted that telecom tariffs have remained unchanged, unlike other rising costs due to inflation.

Prakash Diwan, a market expert, said the hike was expected for a while and that the market would take it well. “After the election and the spectrum auction, we were more certain about it; it was just a matter of time,” Diwan said.

“But interestingly, they have done a hike of 20% on an average, 25% for some of the higher plans, and that is a good move because most of us were anticipating 25% across two hikes. Now, if this first hike itself is 20%, it sets the pace for something higher in the next six to nine months. And once this pace of hikes and the quantum of tariff hikes starts getting accepted by the market, this will become organic. Of course, as consumers we will pay for it, but everybody goes home happy,” Diwan added.