Bharti Airtel to increase mobile tariffs starting July 3

Shares in company rose 4.1% in pre-market trading but trimmed most of its gains to trade 0.7% higher

MUMBAI/BENGALURU:

Bharti Airtel, India's no. 2 telecom operator by subscribers, will hike tariffs across all its plans from July 3, the company said on Friday.

Shares in the company rose 4.1% in pre-market trading after the news, but trimmed most of its gains to trade 0.7% higher.

Bharti Airtel's move to hike prices comes a day after market leader Reliance Industries' Jio Infocomm announced tariff hikes for its prepaid and postpaid plans.

Bharti, Jio Infocomm and Vodafone Idea have not raised tariffs since 2021, a trend that analysts had expected to end after India's national election results in June.

The telco also purchased airwaves worth $820 mln in the government's spectrum auction which ended on Wednesday, the most among its peers, including 97 MHz spectrum that was expiring this year and acquired additional spectrum to boost its mid-band holding, commonly used for 5G connectivity.