Mumbai: Bharti Airtel chief executive officer Gopal Vittal on Wednesday advocated a substantial rise in mobile tariffs needs in India, and said that the market is ready to absorb it over time.
“We are above Rs 200 in Average Revenue Per User (ARPU), but even at Rs 300, the ARPU would be one of the lowest in the world,” Vittal said at Airtel’s post-result analyst call.
Airtel reported an ARPU of Rs 209 in the fourth quarter of the financial year 24, up from Rs 193 in the fourth quarter of the financial year 23. But on a sequential basis, ARPU rose marginally, rising from Rs 208 in the preceding quarter.
Airtel had 72 million 5G customers at the end of March. The company said it is seeing a growth of 2-2.5 million 5G users every month.
The free data provided with 5G plans is dragging down ARPU, Vittal said. If it was priced in, it would have led to data usage going down.
“Given that users have access to free 5G data, they are now using almost double the data they would have used had it been priced,” Vittal said.
