TIL Desk/Business/New Delhi/ The chorus for a tariff hike from incumbents is getting louder.In August, Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal declared firmly that mobile tariffs have to go up for the industry to be sustainable. Backing him up was Vodafone Idea chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla who called tariffs, despite last December’s 40-50 per cent increase, were very low and said raising them was vital for growth.
But Reliance Jio is sitting tight or at least is in no mood to oblige. Instead, a few days ago, it unleashed a price war in the post-paid mobile space, an area where it has less than one per cent share of the market.
The company launched new tariff plans with more data bundled with OTT platforms like Netflix that were priced 20 per cent lower than Bharti Airtel’s entry level plans and offering twice the data of Vodafone Idea for the same price.
Those close to the company say it has not taken any call on a hike on the pre-paid tariff space too – nothing immediate is on the cards. Reliance Jio’s focus now is reaching Mukesh Ambani’s target of 500 million customers from the current 397 million.
