5 min readNew DelhiAug 13, 2026 04:59 PM IST
Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, has discontinued its Rs 299 prepaid plan that offered 1.5 GB of data a day for 28 days.
The Indian telco also removed three other prepaid plans on Wednesday, August 11, namely: the Rs 579, Rs 619, and Rs 649 plans. The move is aimed at encouraging its prepaid customers to purchase higher-priced packs as Airtel looks to boost its Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), a key telecom metric, while keeping headline tariffs unchanged.
Airtel prepaid customers will now be moved directly to the Rs 349 plan, which offers 2GB daily for the same validity period. Essentially, customers who want to retain their existing data allowance will have to pay Rs 50 more per month, while getting an additional 0.5GB of data. Airtel also offers a Rs 399 prepaid plan with 3GB of data per day for 28 days.
The cheapest Airtel prepaid plan for unlimited voice calls continues to be Rs 199, which is still available. Airtel previously discontinued its popular and affordable Rs 249 prepaid plan around the same time last year.
With no broad-based tariff hikes since July 2024, Indian telecom service providers have been relying on users upgrading to higher-value plans to lift ARPU. By leaving the Rs 199 plan untouched and reducing the intermediate price points, Airtel likely wants to push customers up the value chain without calling it a tariff hike.
Why is Airtel discontinuing certain prepaid plans?
Airtel’s move to selectively expand ARPU is part of its broader strategy of premiumisation across its customer base. It is likely to make up for costs associated with rising data consumption and investments in network expansion. The restructuring could have a positive impact on Airtel’s revenue since the Rs 299 plan is estimated to account for around 80 per cent of its prepaid users.
However, the removal of the Rs 579, Rs 619, and Rs 649 plans is unlikely to have a significant impact on the company’s revenue, given their low subscriber volume. Overall, the move helps reduce Airtel’s exposure to lower-paying subscribers. Though, it could also lead some subscribers to migrate to competing operators.
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Another prong of Airtel’s strategy of pushing customers to move to higher-value plans involves a technology called 5G network slicing. The telco began offering a differentiated ‘Fast Lane’ network experience for eligible postpaid subscribers from May 2026. The launch of the preferential service tier had triggered a fresh debate in India over net neutrality, the principle that all internet traffic should be treated equally.
Will Airtel raise headline tariffs this year?
The prepaid restructuring by Airtel indicates its possible reluctance to hike tariffs across the board. To begin with, Airtel’s tariffs are already at a premium compared to those of Reliance Jio. Another headline increase could widen the price gap and make Airtel’s plans less competitive – assuming the market leader does not follow suit.
Despite Airtel’s strategy to avoid an outright hike, analysts estimate broader tariff hikes
of 12 to 15 per cent later this year.
“We believe this is an advancement of the next round of tariff hikes (expected in December 2026) on select plans. For now, we are not assuming that this tariff tweak is over and above the December 2026 expected tariff hike,” analysts at IIFL Securities wrote in a note dated Wednesday, August 12.
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JM Financial believes rival telecom operators can be expected to follow suit within days and announce similar changes to their respective pricing architectures. The brokerage further estimated that if a tenth of Airtel’s subscriber base moved to plans priced roughly Rs 50 higher, the company’s blended ARPU could rise by Rs 5 to 6, or close to 2 per cent, from the Rs 264 recorded in the June quarter.
How did Airtel perform in the last quarter?
Airtel added over one million postpaid customers in the quarter ended June 30, its highest-ever quarterly addition, while mobile ARPU rose to Rs 264 from Rs 257 in the March quarter.
Airtel’s 4G/5G customer base also expanded by around five million during the quarter to 301.8 million, accounting for 80.5 per cent of its mobile subscriber base, compared with 80.1 per cent three months earlier. Airtel’s India user base grew 12.8 per cent year-on-year to about 492 million as of June 30, lagging behind Jio’s 533.3 million.
The telco posted a 37.3 per cent rise in first quarter profit, driven by subscriber additions and users upgrading to costlier plans. Its consolidated net profit rose to 81.67 billion rupees ($856.28 million) for the quarter, from 59.48 billion rupees a year ago.
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Airtel’s ARPU rose 5.6 per cent year-on-year to 264 rupees during the first quarter, helped by a 7.5 per cent increase in its 4G and 5G subscriber base.
Meanwhile, rival Reliance Jio reported a 6.8 per cent rise in quarterly profit last month. India’s telecom sector has witnessed intense competition since Jio’s entry in 2016, with the Reliance unit overtaking peers to command the country’s largest user base.
