Bad news for customers of Jio, Airtel and Vodafone as Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal plan to…

According to figures from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), 1.5 million users switched to BSNL in July, followed by 2.1 million in August.

Mobile recharge prices might soon go up again, as big private telecom companies like Reliance Jio (run by Mukesh Ambani), Bharti Airtel (led by Sunil Mittal), and Vodafone Idea are reportedly planning to raise their tariffs in the coming months, possibly around November or December 2025. As per industry sources, this price hike is part of a broader plan to increase company earnings, which will help fund improvements in their services, especially expanding 5G networks. The telecom giants are facing high expenses related to buying spectrum and upgrading their infrastructure, which is pushing them to consider this price revision.

This won’t be the first time in recent years that mobile charges have gone up. In mid-2024, these companies had already raised their tariffs, which caused many users to move to BSNL, the government-owned telecom provider, in search of more affordable options.

As per recent data shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), major private telecom operators faced a sharp drop in user numbers in September 2024. Reliance Jio, led by Mukesh Ambani, recorded the biggest loss, with around 7.9 million users leaving the network. Bharti Airtel, headed by Sunil Mittal, lost about 1.4 million customers, while Vodafone Idea (Vi) saw a drop of nearly 1.5 million subscribers.

Amid these losses, state-run telecom company BSNL has seen a steady rise in users and has become the biggest gainer during this period of shifting loyalties. From July to October 2024, over 5.5 million mobile users ported their numbers to BSNL from private providers.

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According to figures from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), 1.5 million users switched to BSNL in July, followed by 2.1 million in August. The trend continued into the following months, with 1.1 million joining in September and another 0.7 million in October. This marks a strong comeback for the government-owned telecom company.