Airtel's Executive Vice-Chairman Gopal Vittal claimed India's "rich are paying less than they ought to" for telecom services. He argued current unlimited data plans cap Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) at ₹340-₹350, hindering operators from charging heavy users more. Airtel wants a tiered "small, medium, large, extra-large" pricing model, but cannot move alone in a competitive market.
How We Got Here
Airtel has consistently argued for telecom tariff hikes for the past two years, with ARPU stagnating around the ₹200-₹205 mark industry-wide for a long time. This latest Q4FY26 earnings call saw its executives frame the issue as a societal inequity, putting pressure on competitors to follow suit.
The Numbers
- AI now contributes to "nearly 30%" of all code written at Airtel, per CEO Shashwat Sharma.
- Airtel purchased "a few hundred GPUs" for internal AI workloads, citing "10x" efficiency improvements in newer chips.
- Its AI systems detected 14 billion spam calls and generated 135 million actions for cross-selling Wi-Fi, postpaid, and financial services.
- Airtel Cloud secured 24 deals in FY26 and plans 1 gigawatt of data centre capacity, emphasizing sovereign data control.
What Happens Next
🇮🇳 Why This Matters for India
For the millions of young professionals in Hyderabad's tech parks and Pune's manufacturing hubs, a shift to tiered pricing would mean re-evaluating their "unlimited" data usage habits or facing higher monthly bills.
The Take
Airtel's "rich pay less" argument is clever reframing—it's less about equity and more about unlocking ARPU growth. Expect similar rhetoric from Jio and Vi in coming months as they prepare the ground for the next round of tariff hikes.
Source:
MediaNama ↗