Telecoms target ARPU growth via plan segmentation as price hikes face limits

For telecom operators, the pursuit of higher average revenue per user (Arpu) is increasingly constrained by how much more subscribers can afford to pay for connectivity. While companies are looking to move customers to higher-value plans and monetise rising data consumption, a large section of the market remains sensitive to even modest increases in recharge costs.

The contrasting experiences of Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, along with the intervention of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on voice-and-SMS-only plans, underline the difficulty of pursuing higher realisations across a market with widely differing consumption patterns and paying capacities.