All three have ramped up efforts to attract higher paying postpaid customers as they look for ways to increase average revenue per user (ARPU<\/a>) in the absence of headline tariff hikes, they added.
“With international travel picking up (after the pandemic) and given Vi’s vulnerability, both Airtel and Jio are making efforts to drive value for postpaid users using lucrative and simplified international travel packs,” Rohan Dhamija, head (India & Middle East) at Analysys Mason, said.
Airtel and Jio have launched competitively priced international roaming packs in recent months, with focus on pricing as well as convenience and flexibility. While Airtel introduced a single travel pack for 184 countries, Jio offers features like in-flight calling and data packs for international travellers.
In response, Vi recently announced unlimited international roaming packs in 29 countries including the top travel destinations around the world.
While postpaid customers are not easily swayed by competitive pricing, offering them flexibility and convenience in services like international roaming, coupled with attractive pricing can help Airtel and Jio grab a share of Vi’s postpaid customer base, analysts added.
“The new international travel packs have helped us attract new postpaid users as well. This customer segment looks for convenience, security and flexibility, which the new international roaming packs provide,” an Airtel spokesperson told ET.
Vi has traditionally had a stronghold on its postpaid customer base and boasts of a larger share of postpaid customers than its peers. Estimates peg that less than 5% of Jio’s 430 million user base is postpaid while for Airtel, roughly 6% of its current customer base is postpaid. On the other hand, almost 10% of Vi’s subscriber base is postpaid.
“The strategy would be to upgrade existing premium prepaid customers to postpaid, apart from trying to poach Vi’s postpaid base. Given that the difference in prepaid and postpaid pricing is much lower than before, upgrading prepaid customers would be possible by offering value added services,” said an analyst with a leading ratings agency.
Analysts added that with the slowdown in 2G to 4G upgrades<\/a> among customers, converting prepaid customers to postpaid is crucial to boost ARPUs till the sector sees another round of tariff hikes. Additionally, the delay in 5G monetisation<\/a> also requires telcos to take some interventions to boost ARPUs.
Apart from services like international, telcos are looking at pricing interventions in entry-level packs, and boosting revenue from mobile broadband<\/a> (MBB) usage.
“MBB upgrades are likely to continue to be the catalyst for increasing ARPU in the near term amidst likelihood of delay in tariff hike to mid-2024 (post the national elections); however, tariff hike remains the key driver for ARPU improvement in the long term amidst limited monetisation opportunities for 5G,” analysts from JM Financial said in a report.
Vi recently introduced nightly data packs, which offer unlimited data usage from 12 am to 6 am in one day and seven-day validity variants, an example of the telecom operators’ efforts to boost ARPUs driven by data usage.
<\/body>","next_sibling":[{"msid":100915706,"title":"Sterlite Tech says customers continue to prioritise network build-outs; 5G rolls out, fiberisation driving India growth","entity_type":"ARTICLE","link":"\/news\/industry\/sterlite-tech-says-customers-continue-to-prioritise-network-build-outs-5g-rolls-out-fiberisation-driving-india-growth\/100915706","category_name":null,"category_name_seo":"industry"}],"related_content":[],"msid":100939461,"entity_type":"ARTICLE","title":"Jio, Vodafone Idea, Airtel play on international roaming battleground to woo postpaid users","synopsis":"All three have ramped up efforts to attract higher paying postpaid customers as they look for ways to increase average revenue per user (ARPU) in the absence of headline tariff hikes, they added.","titleseo":"industry\/jio-vodafone-idea-airtel-play-on-international-roaming-battleground-to-woo-postpaid-users","status":"ACTIVE","authors":[{"author_name":"Urvi Malvania","author_link":"\/author\/479253100\/urvi-malvania","author_image":"https:\/\/etimg.etb2bimg.com\/authorthumb\/479253100.cms?width=100&height=100&hid=268","author_additional":{"thumbsize":false,"msid":479253100,"author_name":"Urvi Malvania","author_seo_name":"urvi-malvania","designation":"Special Correspondent","agency":false}}],"analytics":{"comments":0,"views":2261,"shares":0,"engagementtimems":6617000},"Alttitle":{"minfo":""},"artag":"ET Bureau","artdate":"2023-06-12 17:07:03","lastupd":"2023-06-12 17:07:05","breadcrumbTags":["reliance jio","industry","bharti airtel","vodafone idea","postpaid","ARPU","4g upgrades","5G monetisation","telecom news","mobile broadband"],"secinfo":{"seolocation":"industry\/jio-vodafone-idea-airtel-play-on-international-roaming-battleground-to-woo-postpaid-users"}}" data-news_link="//www.iser-br.com/news/industry/jio-vodafone-idea-airtel-play-on-international-roaming-battleground-to-woo-postpaid-users/100939461">