Airtel’s 5G Plus and Reliance Jio’s True 5G services continue to roll out across India. Officially launched on October 1 at the India Mobile Congress, both telcos promise to expand their 5G services to most towns and villages by the end of 2023. However, nearly four months after the official rollout, both telcos are yet to offer clarity on the 5G plans and tariffs. Jio comes closest to offering official information on its 5G plans. The telco has said that all users part of the “welcome offer” can enjoy “unlimited 5G Data with speeds up to 1 Gbps” if they subscribe to a base plan of Rs 239 or higher. This is applicable to both Jio prepaid and all postpaid users.
Moreover, the company has also updated its official website and app with a new prepaid section called “5G upgrade.” This dedicated section includes a prepaid top-up worth Rs 61 and offers 6GB of additional data. It is primarily for users who are not on the Rs 239 or higher plans. Jio will add more plans in the future after observing reception to its 5G services across Indian cities. Airtel, on the other hand, is yet to offer details on its plans, while Vi (formerly Vodafone Idea) is yet to roll out their 5G services in India.
Amid all this, many are still wondering about 5G prices and plans in India. In the past, the government and telcos have indicated that 5G plans in India are going to be the cheapest in the world. Even Airtel CTO Randeep Sekhon told India Today Tech in March last year that its 5G plans in India could be priced similar to the existing 4G plans.
However, making tariffs affordable poses a big challenge to operators. For instance, after offering affordable 4G plans in India for many years, many telcos amended their strategy to widen their profit margins. The first set of blows came to customers in 2020 when major telcos increased the cost of their prepaid plans to adjust their Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), which is a key metric for understanding how much revenue a company generates per user. It was also reported that operators would raise tariffs by 10 per cent this year.
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When asked about the challenges faced by the telecom industry, Shilpi Jain, a research analyst at technology market research firm Counterpoint, told India Today Tech that one of the main challenges for telco companies is setting up large-scale infrastructure for pan-India coverage, which requires high capital investment. “This will be difficult for telcos that are already under financial pressure. The key focus for telcos should be on 5G use cases,” Jain said.
She adds, “To push for mass adoption, the telcos may need to educate and spread awareness on 5G use-cases and how it will help the consumers in their daily lives. Also, the telcos will need to keep tariffs competitive and may need to provide larger data packs as compared to 4G plans. We think that mass adoption of 5G is still a year away.”
A similar sentiment was echoed by Prabhu Ram, head of Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CyberMedia Research (CMR). On 5G tariffs and plans by major telcos in India, he adds that “telcos would need to strike a fine balance between affordability and premium pricing in designing their 5G plans, to ensure swifter uptake of 5G, and attain leadership mantle. It would require some iterative checks and feedback.”
Ram adds, “The focus for telcos this year will be to gain consumer acceptance for 5G offerings. For instance, Jio’s experiment with sachet pricing with its new Rs 61 5G data plan is a great step forward to whet consumer interest and a potentially greater appetite for 5G plans.”
India Today Tech has also reached out to Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. The article will be updated once the telcos offer a reply.
Meanwhile, Jio’s “True 5G” services are available in 93 cities as of January 10. Airtel has reached 25 cities with 5G Plus networks so far.
