New Delhi: Vodafone Idea (Vi) is all set to start the tariff war with Reliance Jio and Airtel with the launch of its 5G mobile broadband service in March this year, as per a report in the Economic Times.
Economic Times, quoting multiple sources familiar with the matter said that Vodafone Idea could aggressively price its tariff plans, that could be 15% cheaper than Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel’s offerings.
Vi may initially launch 5G across India’s top 75 cities in its 17 priority circles, the ET report said.
“Telco may increase its payouts towards dealer commissions and promotional spends to lure back high-value 5G prepaid users from its bigger rivals,” ET said quoting analyst.
Earlier, in August last year VIL CEO Akshaya Moondra at the company’s Q1 earnings call said the company it is witnessing an efflux in subscribers port-outs to BSNL following the recent tariff hikes announced by the company. Moondra said that the company is closely monitoring the situation.
“One of the trends we have seen is that the port out to BSNL has generally risen from pre-tariff increase levels which is a space we are watching…And the reason for that is because they (BSNL) has not increased their tariffs so there is a fair amount of arbitrage,” he said.
Moondra viewed the quick decisions to port out as being taken purely on the basis of tariff action and may not eventually sustain, given the 4G coverage offered by VIL.
“We are watching this space – our expectation is that customers who are used to having good coverage and experience of 4G coverage, probably current offering of BSNL may not be to that extent…As people who may have taken a quick decision in terms of tariff actions…May most likely come back. But we will keep on watching this space and see what needs to be done,” he said.
Major telecom operators –Airtel, Jio announced tariff hikes In July. Vodafone Idea raised tariffs by 11-24 percent. State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), however, has not increased its tariffs.