Airtel is not in a hurry, will wait and watch Reliance Jio’s tariff plans before changing its rates

Bharti Airtel is waiting for Reliance Jio’s welcome offer to end and see its tariff plan. Airtel is in no hurry and will change its pricing of services after Reliance Jio makes a move.

Airtel India CEO Gopal Vittal told ET amid pressures on pricing and realisations due to the entry of Jio, Airtel is still adding to its revenue market share, and expects to gain more in the quarters ahead.

"Right now, the new entrant is offering stuff completely free and at some point they will begin to price it, because you can't endlessly give free services, and that time we will look at what the right pricing should be,” Vittal told ET.

Reliance Jio’s 'welcome offer' will conclude by December end.

"The new entrant, which is well capitalised, will look at pricing as a lever. We need to be competitive and need to see what we can do internally to our processes to reshape customer experience, strip out waste, among other things,” Vittal told ET.

Meanwhile, Airtel is going to focus on retaining its high ARPU customers-those contributing 1.5 times its current ARPU of around Rs 190.

"In all industries, businesses, 20% of customers account for 60% of revenue, that's no different in our business. Identifying that 20%, making sure that churn is low and we get a disproportionate share of their wallet, is very important,” he said.

"We have to do all of these things to win, in a competitive dynamic,” said Vittal.