Airtel’s Rs 245 ARPU: Profitable Harmony or Prelude to a Price Hike?

Bharti Airtel, India's second-largest telecommunications operator, saw a flat average revenue per user (ARPU) at ₹245 in the fourth quarter of FY25, the same as the previous quarter. This is a 17% sequential increase from ₹209, mainly due to the July 2024 tariff increase. With addition of 0.6 million postpaid users and 6.6 million new smartphone data users, ARPU growth has slowed down, indicating the benefits of previous price increases may have faded.

 

Airtel is still the industry leader in ARPU, followed by ₹206.2 by Reliance Jio and ₹173 by Vodafone Idea. But with flat ARPU, there is speculation about another round of tariff increase. Industry observers point out that though the telecom operators, including Airtel, have all long argued that higher tariffs are necessary to make profitability possible, any tariff increase now is likely to be an industry-wide synchronized move to prevent customer loss.

 

No time frame given for the next tariff increase to date. Airtel will likely take a wait-and-see approach regarding market forces and business sentiment before acting, given that financial yields and consumer sentiment remain among the top priorities.

 

Source: Trak.in