Reliance Jio, India's top telecom operator, announced a 12-27 per cent hike in mobile tariffs -- the first in two and half years, setting the stage for other operators like Vodafone Idea to raise charges.
The company has also restricted the access of unlimited free 5G services for customers.
The hike comes immediately after the spectrum auction, as per the anticipation of sector experts. Industry experts believe that Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea may also increase their mobile service rates soon.
"The introduction of new plans is a step in the direction of furthering industry innovation and driving sustainable growth through investments in 5G and AI technology," Reliance Jio Infocomm Chairman Akash M Ambani said in the statement.
The company has raised mobile service rates across almost all plans.
The price of the lowest recharge is being raised to Rs 19, about 27 per cent higher than Rs 15 for 1 GB data add-on-pack.
The 75 GB postpaid data plan will now cost Rs 449 against Rs 399.
Jio has also raised the price of the popular Rs 666 unlimited plan with 84-day validity by about 20 per cent to Rs 799.
Prices of the annual recharge plans will be increased by 20-21 per cent from Rs 1,559 to Rs 1,899 and from Rs 2,999 to Rs 3,599.
The hike across the medium-range mobile service plans will be 19-21 per cent.
"Unlimited 5G data will be available on all 2GB per day and above plans... The new plans will be made effective on July 3, 2024, and can be opted from all existing touchpoints and channels," the statement said.
As of now, subscribers availing plans priced above Rs 239 can access unlimited free 5G service, and the rest of the customers have to top up their plan with a Rs 61 voucher to avail unlimited 5G service.
Earlier, Jio had raised mobile service rates in December 2021 along with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
In between, Airtel raised the entry-level mobile services plan by about 56 per cent to Rs 155 from Rs 99 earlier in early 2023.
Jio has over 47 crore mobile subscribers, accounting for about 41 per cent market share.
Besides the hike in mobile service rates, Jio introduced two apps - Jio Safe and JioTranslate - which it provides absolutely free to its customers for one year.
Priced at Rs 199 per month, JioSafe - Quantum-secure communication app can be used for calling, messaging, file transfer etc.
AI-enabled JioTranslate is a multilingual communication app for translating voice calls, voice messages, text and images.
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