Airtel increases price of its minimum monthly recharge plan

Airtel has increased price of its minimum monthly recharge plan from ₹35 to ₹45. The change in the plan has come into effect from Sunday.

The price revision comes after almost one year Airtel introduced the ₹35 plan as the monthly minimum recharge plan. For ₹35, Airtel offered 100MB of 3G/4G data, talktime of ₹26.66 along with local and STD calls at 1 paisa per second. The validity of this plan was 28 days.

"With effect from 29th December 2019, the existing SUK base plan is being discontinued and new customers shall be on a base tariff plan of 2.5p/sec for all Local & STD voice calls, 5p/sec for National Video Calls, 50p/MB for Data, SMS tariff of Re 1/SMS for Local, ₹1.5/SMS for National, and ₹5/SMS for International. Further, it will be mandatory to recharge with a voucher of ₹45 or above, every 28 days to avail services," said Airtel in a circular.

"In case of recharge with STV/Combo/Top-up voucher of MRP greater than or equal to ₹45, the validity of the tariff plan will be extended with the validity of Combo/STV voucher and in case of top-up voucher, by 28 days. In case of non-recharge with a voucher of ₹45 or above, at the end of the tariff validity period, Airtel reserves the right to provide the plan benefits in a curtailed manner at its own discretion during the grace period of up to 15 days. In case of non-recharge with a voucher of ₹45 of above, all services will be suspended post the grace period," it added.

Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone recently hiked mobile tariffs in India. Airtel said its revised mobile tariffs represent a hike in the range of 50 paise per day to ₹2.85. Airtel also included the 6 paise per minute IUC charges on unlimited calling from its network to other networks.

Vodafone Idea increased tariffs by up to 40%. Reliance Jio also introduced new all-in-one plans with hiked tariffs. Jio said its new plans with revised prices still offer more value than the competition. The company, however, retained the limited IUC minutes in the new plans. Reliance Jio recently re-introduced popular ₹98 and ₹149 prepaid plans