Bharti Airtel, the second-largest telecom operator in India, has removed some affordable plans from its offerings recently. We are talking about the prepaid plans which include the Rs 299, Rs 579, Rs 649, and Rs 619 options. These plans are not available for the consumers anymore in certain circles. The telco removing these plans has not resulted in any major churn in the subscriber numbers. This is a great sign as people are absorbing higher tariffs in return for a promise of a better quality of service. Bharti Airtel promises premium service to the consumers, and thus charges a premium on its plans to add to its average revenue per user (ARPU) growth.

The removal of these plans can result in a modest ARPU growth of about Rs 4-6 in FY27 for Bharti Airtel. In absence of direct tariff hikes, Airtel is resorting to trying out new methods and ways to boost revenues, all without losing customers. According to IIFL Capital, Bharti Airtel has not seen any significant churn in subscriber numbers among rural and semi rural subscribers after discontinuing certain prepaid plans.

“From our visits to a few stores across small cities and towns in Rajasthan and Maharashtra, we gathered that post the recent discontinuation of some plans by Bharti, retailers have not seen significant churn to other telcos,” said IIFL Capital in a recent research note. The research note was first seen and shared by ET Telecom.

In the report, IIFL Capital has mentioned that Airtel’s Rs 349 plan has seen better demand from the consumers despite Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi) offering the Rs 299 plan, which is Rs 50 cheaper.

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