Decoding costlier Airtel and Jio bills, and what it means for India’s 5G curve

There were hints for a while now, and therefore, we cannot really say we’ve been surprised. Reliance Jio, Airtel and subsequently Vi (formerly Vodafone Idea) have decided the timing is right to pull the trigger on making prepaid and some postpaid plans more expensive. Whatever the jokes or casual analysis on X may say, there are two main reasons why you’ll be paying more for your mobile connection, irrespective of whether you’re using prepaid or postpaid as the method. It’ll be interesting to see whether these tariffs hold, or do we begin to see a drop in active mobile connections in the coming months. Perhaps, a few will discard second or third active SIMs (more of these will be the prepaid variety), to keep expenses in check. After all, the hikes across Jio and Airtel are upwards of 10%, more as you move up the price ladder for higher spec plan.