Bad news for mobile users as Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Mittal plan to…

Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio and Sunil Mittal-led Airtel, had significantly hiked their mobile tariffs in mid 2024, which had caused a mass exodus of users who flocked to state-owned telecom provider BSNL.

Mobile recharges are reportedly going to get costlier as private telcos, including market leaders Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio, Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi), are preparing for a major hike in tariff plans in the coming months. According to reports, Jio, Vi, and Airtel are likely increase the prices of their recharge plans by November-December 2025.

Tariff hike coming due to…

Citing sources, reports say that the planned tariff hike is part of a long-term strategy by private telecom providers to earn more revenue which will enable them to further strengthen their network infrastructure, especially on the 5G front. According to industry insiders, several reasons could be driving the tariff hike by telcos, including the push to expand their 5G network in more parts of the country, and the high cost of purchasing spectrum and strengthening their existing network infrastructure.

Notably, all private players, including Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio and Sunil Mittal-led Airtel, had significantly hiked their mobile tariffs in mid 2024, which had caused a mass exodus of users who flocked to state-owned telecom provider BSNL.

Private telcos lose subscribers after tariff hike

As per data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), collectively lost nearly 10 million (1 crore) subscribers in the month of September 2024, with Mukesh Ambani-led Jio witnessing the biggest drop, losing 7.9 million users, while Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel lost 1.4 million, and Vi (Vodafone-Idea) lost 1.5 million customers.

While private players continue to bleed subscribers, BSNL, which has witnessed a resurgence of late, has emerged as the definitive winner, with over 5.5 million (55 lakh) subscribers porting their numbers to the government-owned provider in the July-October 2024 period.

According to Department of Telecommunications (DoT), 1.5 million subscribers switched to BSNL from private telecom providers, Jio, Vi, and Airtel, in July 2024, while the number surged t0 2.1 million in August 2024. In September and October 2024, around 1.1 million and 0.7 million users migrated to BSNL, respectively, the data revealed.