Amazon Prime impact: Pay more for your Jio, Vodafone, Airtel prepaid plans?

Amazon Prime memberships are set to become more expensive, the company recently confirmed on its website. While the price of Amazon’s premium shopping and OTT services package has gone up, other services are expected to get a little more expensive, according to a new report that suggests telecom operators could increase the cost of a customer’s prepaid plan.

According to a report by TelecomTalk, the increased price of an Amazon Prime subscription could lead to operators like Jio, Vodafone and Airtel revising the price of some prepaid plans. This is because these telecom operators provide OTT subscriptions for services like Amazon Prime, Hotstar VIP and more, and the cost of the subscription is part of the prepaid plan. As a result, the report claims that the price of these select prepaid plans will be affected.

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According to Amazon’s support page, the monthly cost of a subscription will be raised to ₹179, up from the previous cost of ₹129. Those who are looking for the quarterly plan will have to pay ₹459, up from the older ₹329 per quarter. Similarly, those who want the annual plan will have to shell out ₹1,499 instead of the older price of ₹999 a year.

In order to reduce confusion, the company also revealed that those who had existing subscriptions would not have to pay the new price, until their existing subscription ends. After that, they will have to pick one of the new plans to renew membership.

While Vi, Airtel and Jio are yet to put out any communication regarding a change in pricing, Amazon’s support page has a frequently asked question about whether the price change will affect “bundled offers” from a telecom operator. “Yes, (the) price will increase for customers who have joined Prime from your mobile operators as well. Please contact your operator for the same,” the support page reads.