Reliance JioPhone tariffs up 20 per cent

The tariff for JioPhone, the affordable feature phones from India’s leading telecom company, Reliance Jio, have increased by 20 per cent with the end of the introductory offer.

Reliance Jio has a subscriber base of over 400 million, with over 100 million JioPhone users.

JioPhones are 4G and VoLTE enabled feature phones from Reliance that work only on the Reliance Jio network.

Rs 155 plan with a validity of 28 days will now cost Rs 186. Likewise, the Rs 185 plan with a validity of 28 days and 2GB of data per day will now cost the consumers Rs 222. Similarly, the Rs 749 plan with a validity of 336 days will now cost Rs 899, an increase of 20 per cent.

A CRISIL report in May said that the top three private telecom operators in India are likely to resort to another round of tariff hikes in the second half of the current fiscal.

This tariff hike would help them close FY23 with revenue growth of 20-25 per cent.

The report added that growth in average revenue per user (ARPU) is essential for the industry to invest in network and spectrum, failing which service offerings will be affected.

Reliance Jio saw its total subscriber base fall sharply between August 2021 and February 2022. However, the share of its active subscribers reached 94 per cent in March 2022, compared with 78 per cent in the first quarter of last fiscal.

The telecom players are expected to spend incrementally on the network and regulatory capex in FY23. Therefore ARPU growth and tariff hikes could ease some pressure on their books, the report added. Business Standard