Airtel's Sunil Mittal bats for ₹350 monthly mobile tariffs per user, says current rates too low

Bharti Airtel founder and chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal has called for India's mobile tariffs to rise to around ₹350 per month per user, citing rising operating costs and the need for significant investments in telecom infrastructure.

In an interview with news agency PTI marking Bharti Enterprises' 50th year, Mittal said current tariffs were too low to support the investments needed to strengthen India's digital infrastructure. However, he did not give a timeline for when the industry could reach the proposed level. When asked about a timeline for imposing these tariffs, he said, "I don't know."

Why Mittal wants higher mobile tariffs

Mittal said the monthly revenue-per-user level he had previously considered appropriate was no longer relevant, given rising costs over the past decade.

"I used to say earlier, the right level is ₹300 (monthly revenue per user), but that was 10 years back," he said. "There's some inflation that we all suffer."

He pointed to rising expenses across the telecom sector, including oil, electricity, employee and administrative costs.

"Oil prices are up, electricity costs are up, employee costs are up, administrative costs are up. Everything is up," he said.

Mittal also highlighted the gap in India's telecom infrastructure compared with China, saying the country needed to significantly expand its network of mobile towers.

"China has over a million towers. India has about 3,50,000. So we have a job to do. We have to at least double from where we are today," he said.

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‘5G a bit of a disappointment’

The Airtel chairman also pointed to the investments made in 5G, saying the technology had not generated the additional revenue the industry had expected.

Spectrum acquisition had cost operators "lakhs of crores", while building the network required another "lakh and a half crores", he said.

"Serious investments have gone," Mittal said, describing the revenue generated from 5G as "a bit of a disappointment". However, he said the investments had “created the required capacity for the digital world.”

₹350/month still among the world's cheapest tariffs?

Mittal said a monthly average of ₹350 would still leave India with "by far the cheapest" mobile tariffs anywhere in the world.

He described the proposed level as a combination of entry-level plans costing "200 plus" and higher-value packs priced at ₹500, ₹700, ₹800 or ₹1,000.

This would amount to around ₹10-12 a day, he said, arguing that the cost was affordable considering the range of services available to mobile users.

"You buy now soap and a packet of chips. You know what it costs. Having a bottle of Pepsi costs you a lot more than that," he said.

For that amount, users could access banking, education, benefit transfers, UPI payments and health records, while also enjoying entertainment platforms.

"And by the way, enjoy your movies and Instagram and YouTube," he said.

Where do mobile tariffs stand currently?

Bharti Airtel reported an average revenue per user (ARPU) of ₹271 in the September quarter, compared with ₹256 in the corresponding period a year earlier.

A monthly ARPU of ₹350 would be roughly 29% higher than Airtel's latest reported figure.

The last round of headline mobile tariff increases took place in June 2024, when telecom operators raised plan prices by 10-25%.

India's mobile tariffs and revenue per user have remained among the lowest in the world. The industry has seen only three tariff increases since 2019.