The company continued its ₹199, ₹219 and ₹349 plans
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Bharti Airtel discontinued four of its 28-day prepaid plans ranging from ₹300 to ₹650 to simplify price ladder for customers, as per sources in the know.The telecom operator cancelled its data ₹299, ₹579, ₹619 and ₹649 on Wednesday but retaining entry-level packs of ₹199 and ₹219. Further, the company continued its ₹349 plan as well. Sources knowledgeable of the decision said that while nearly 80 per cent of the Airtel customer base avail the ₹299 pack, most customer top-up the same for data usage, effectively bringing up costs to the next plan.Entry Level PricingThe move is in line with Gopal Vittal – Executive Vice Chairman at Airtel’s comments during the company’s latest earnings call.“If [we] operate with a more sensible price architecture, in the next five to seven years [we] will see sustained growth, just on account of ARPU as India gets more affluent, of 4-5 per cent, maybe higher. That will be a good place to go. There is no need to touch the entry level pricing because the entry level pricing is, good enough. We need to think about price architectures and industry needs to fundamentally change over the next few years,” said Vittal.Further, Shashwat Sharma – Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at Airtel India argued that the pricing architecture will have to be reassess with charging for data and consumption as the norm to see long-term sustainable growth.Published on August 12, 2026
