There is a particular type of panic one experiences upon landing in a foreign country and switching off “Airplane Mode.” You finally see the signal bars settle and hope for a welcome SMS that doesn’t look like an eye-watering phone bill. For Bharti Airtel subscribers, that pain is about to become a little more acute. This is a fitting reply from the Indian behemoth to foreign networks. Airtel has introduced new international roaming prices, hiking the floor price for staying connected abroad. This hurts the pocketbook, but it is not a frivolous decision. It is part of a deliberately calibrated system in the mechanics of telecom economics.
The ARPU Equation
To understand why roaming costs more, it helps to look at ARPU (Average Revenue Per User), a metric telecom companies use to calculate the average revenue each subscriber generates. In telecom, while the number of users shows scale, ARPU is the metric that reflects actual profitability. Airtel, like its peers, faces pressure to improve ARPU and overall financial health.
The construction of 5G networks and the maintenance of infrastructure require billions of dollars in capital investment. While data costs are exorbitant in India, local data costs remain among the cheapest in the world. To balance the books, telcos build financial models that use “premium” services to subsidise basic service. For example, international travelers form a luxury market. By hiking roaming rates—a luxury service—Airtel is trying to squeeze that extra buck from users who can afford it, thereby boosting its overall ARPU ahead of an anticipated tariff hike in 2026.
The Zones of Cost
The increase is not uniform; it’s zonal. Telecom companies carve the world into zones, based on what they pay local partners for data. So, when you’re Airtel-ing in Paris, Airtel pays a French operator (like Orange or SFR) to use their towers. These “interconnect usage charges” vary widely.
The change suggests it now costs more to do business in some corridors, most likely the US, UK, and Europe, or that Airtel sees a chance for higher margins in high-traffic destinations. Because entry-level packs are squeezed, the “minimum cover charge” to keep a phone active abroad has risen, forcing users to commit to higher-value packs for connectivity—thus wiping out the easy “for emergency use” packages.
Surviving the Hike
This is a wake-up call for the consumer. “Just turn it on and use it” is edging toward unaffordable. Travelers will now be forced back to the old days. They’ll rely on hotel Wi-Fi, download offline maps before leaving the tarmac, or buy a local SIM card once they arrive. Local SIMs almost always offer far better data rates than roaming packs.
Airtel’s action is probably a bellwether. In India’s tightly contested telecom oligopoly, one player moves the price needle for a service, and others typically follow. The days of rock-bottom telecom pricing are slipping away. Tiered pricing is on the rise, with premium connectivity demanding a premium. If you’re planning a summer trip, now is the time to budget 300 extra bucks for the digital tether—because staying connected is getting more expensive.
