It is essentially a postpaid tariff hike by Jio similar to what we see in the prepaid segment. Just that it's a steep 50% hike for the base plan which has increased from 199 to 299 which is a sharper increase compared to what we see for prepaid segment.
This is mainly for 2 reasons, first is that postpaid users are sticky unlike the prepaid ones and wouldn't port to another operator so long as they are getting quality service and added benefits to justify the hike and secondly they are more affording than the prepaid users and can digest a sharp tariff hike easier.
i dont think jio is going to remove base 199 plan
as per press release these jioPLUS postpaid plan will start from22nd march is silently saying increasing for ARPU with tariff hike and decreasing entry barrier by making entry level plan at 299 compared to existing entry level JIOPLUS postpaid of 399.
and past experience clearly says jio might remove unlimited 5g from rs199/25gb base plan, similar to no unlimited 5g for prepaid plan below 239, which will make 299 plan attractive which will justify its names PLUS plan against regular plan of 199.
there is huge scope and lot of opportunity for jio to gather many subscriber under postpaid umbrella who need affordable 4g postpaid plan at rs200/month-so doesn't make sense to drop regular 199 plan asof today. wait and watch for week.
or get enroll to plan 199 today so that you get unlimited 5g for 6-12 months till wide spread launch happens.
thirdly it doent make good practice to onboard competitors subscriber at base postpaid plan 199 by giving unlimited 5g,becuase objective is higher ARPU . overall postpaid class is less sensitive, thus wont mind paying 299 , rs100, and get one month trial of unlimted 5g. if they at all unconvinced after 1 month trial, they still has to hand to network for next 2 months, porting period 3months, in such case 199 plan will be savior and then port out co AIRTEL 5G plus network.
