Airtel brings back ₹299 plan on churn concerns
Mint · Jatin Grover, Rudrani Chattopadhyay ·
The move comes after the telecom operator saw a sharp slowdown in subscriber additions and a higher customer churn in the September quarter, underscoring the challenge of raising tariffs in India's price-sensitive mobile market when rivals stay put.
In a surprise reversal, Bharti Airtel Ltd. has brought back its ₹299 entry-level prepaid plan, just months after having scrapped it in a bid to get customers to spend more. The move comes after the telecom operator saw a sharp slowdown in subscriber additions and a higher customer churn in the September quarter (Q2), underscoring the challenge of raising tariffs in India's price-sensitive mobile market when rivals stay put.
The ₹299 plan is now back on the company website. There was no immediate response to Mint's emailed queries to Bharti Airtel on the development.
Airtel had in August withdrawn its ₹299 plan that offered 1 gigabyte (GB) data a day, leaving customers with a ₹349 option as the next cheapest, effecting a 16.7% increase in their monthly spending. This plan comes with 1.5GB of daily data and unlimited 5G access.