iCloud+ and an ecosystem: Airtel leverages bundles to deliver value, upgrades | Business News

Bharti Airtel, in a continued push to add value with postpaid mobile plans, has added the Apple iCloud+ subscription to an already burgeoning bundle. The addition of the iCloud+ subscription with Airtel’s ₹999 and higher family postpaid plans, coincides with Apple expanding the iCloud+ proposition to include the Apple TV streaming service and the Apple Arcade cloud gaming platform. The larger industry context leans toward competition beyond call, data and network coverage metrics, and the economics of it all.Airtel is bundling the iCloud+ subscription, otherwise priced at ₹75 per month, which unlocks 50GB cloud storage on Apple’s iCloud. This particularly holds relevance for Apple iPhone users, though the Apple TV subscription has broader relevance across Android devices and smart TVs.“At Airtel, we are constantly looking at ways to make our customers’ lives simpler while creating more differentiated value through our propositions,” says Amit Tripathi, Director Market Ops- Bharti Airtel. “With the addition of Apple’s iCloud+, Apple TV and Apple Arcade to our family postpaid plan offerings, we are taking this proposition a step further, giving customers even more value and making the Airtel experience more rewarding.”Also Read:A 10,000mAh battery, Xiaomi Redmi Note 17 Pro Max and an old world charmAirtel’s bundle for postpaid users has expanded in choice over time, with the current landscape including Google One for 6 months (100GB cloud storage), Apple Music for 6 months, as well as the JioStar Mobile or JioStar Super subscriptions and the Zee5 Premium subscription, to name a few. Airtel also bundles its in-house Xstream Play Premium across plans. Sprinkled across postpaid (and some broadband plans too) is the Netflix subscription option.Airtel has four plans eligible for the iCloud+ subscription. There is the ₹999 per month plan that can be shared across three mobile connections. The ₹1,199 plan can hold a family of four Airtel postpaid connections, while the ₹1,749 plan can be shared between five postpaid users. There is also a ₹1,399 plan, which is a variation of the ₹1,199 plan, with an added Netflix Basic subscription.The economics are important too. Airtel has reported an industry-leading average revenue per user, or ARPU, of ₹264 for the April–June 2026 quarter. This marked an increase of 5.6% from an ARPU of ₹250 a year prior. With no broad-based postpaid tariff increase since July 2024, subscriber upgrades to more expensive plans have become an important route to revenue growth for telecom companies.Also Read:UN panel raises questions about the way AI models are currently trainedFor Airtel, certain subscriptions are for a limited tenure, after which they will be chargeable, with those charges included in the Airtel postpaid bill for convenience. The Google One subscription, for instance, will cost ₹125 per month after the free tenure is complete. The iCloud+ subscription, however, has an ‘as per plan’ validity, meaning it continues as long as the user is subscribed to an eligible Airtel postpaid plan, without any pause.A broad case for bundles, and valueWhile Airtel is pushing a case for added value with the postpaid bill plan, this can also be seen as a differentiated lifestyle pitch. There is of course the value that these plans are offering, which would enable users to upgrade from a lower-tier plan, while also taking advantage of discounted pricing for multiple postpaid connections as part of the Family plans.It is also a retention lever, creating an ecosystem of bundled services and single billing for convenience. The iCloud bundle, with cloud storage, a streaming app and gaming bundled, would be especially popular among iPhone users.Secondly, Airtel’s spectrum of bundled services spreads across cloud storage, premium TV and movie streaming services, ad-free cloud gaming, and music streaming. This is in addition to unlimited 5G data, unlimited local and national voice calls, as well as network-level spam protection alerts. Apple’s iCloud+ bundle also unlocks Private Relay to make Safari web browsing more private, and the Hide My Email option, in Apple devices.Also Read:Plaud Note Pro makes a compelling case for task focused AI hardwareFinally, Bundling services with visible standalone value gives Airtel another reason to move a user from a prepaid plan or a lower-priced postpaid plan to a higher-tier offering. Also, since baseline tariffs have remained static, Airtel’s ARPU growth has been entirely driven by “premiumisation”, including upgrading users from feature phones to 4G/5G smartphones, and moving prepaid users to higher-margin postpaid plans.The lifestyle element is particularly addressed by Airtel’s new Insider tier, which adds new perks every month. At this time, Airtel users can unlock the Duolingo Super subscription for 12 months (worth ₹3,120), a 3-month EazyDiner Prime subscription and a 3-month subscription to PocketFM streaming, to name a few.Reliance Jio is leveraging its stronger prepaid user base, as well as bundling perceived value with postpaid plans. The telecom company just added a 12-month Canva Pro subscription for creators, likely as a response to Airtel’s Adobe Express subscription bundle. Jio’s prepaid users can recharge with the ₹399 plan to get access to the higher tier Canva Pro subscription, while users recharging with the ₹349 pack are eligible for the Canva Pro Lite subscription.Across plans, Jio’s bundles may unlock access to FanCode, Snapchat+, JioGames Mobile, JioStar, Swiggy One, and an 18-month Google AI Pro plan, depending on eligibility. Jio reported an ARPU of ₹215.6 per subscriber per month for the quarter ending June 2026.