Chann
VIP
Telecom companies have started hiking call rates again. Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular bit the bullet on Wednesday, setting off a trend rivals are expected to follow.
“In most circles, we have reduced promotional benefits and free minutes on both acquisition and existing usage,” Bharti Airtel said in a statement.
Idea Cellular said owing to depleting margins and rise in input costs, the prices have been hiked in an ongoing process. It has hiked call rates steeply from 1paise per second to 1.2paise per second.
“In some cases, free minutes have been reduced by 10-25% on MRP of the pack. MRP of some special value vouchers has been increased by Rs5-15,” Sandip Agarwal and Omkar Hadkar from Edelweiss Research said in a note.
The last time the telcos hiked tariffs was almost a year-and-a-half ago — by 20-50% back then.
Increasing cost of inputs and spectrum — especially considering the second round of 2G auctions is around the corner — has led them to do this again.
“We feel these (change in the tariffs) were inevitable, given the sharp input and energy price increases in the country. We are inclined to follow to maintain consistency and competitive position though we haven’t decided on our precise circle-wise moves,” Vodafone said in a statement.
The companies denied that there has been any hike in the base price, which varies from circle to circle and depends on different usage schemes.
However, Anil Kumar, secretary of NGO Telecom Watchdog, said, “There has been a hike of almost 20-30% in call tariffs by all leading players and it has been effective from October-November last year.”
“In most circles, we have reduced promotional benefits and free minutes on both acquisition and existing usage,” Bharti Airtel said in a statement.
Idea Cellular said owing to depleting margins and rise in input costs, the prices have been hiked in an ongoing process. It has hiked call rates steeply from 1paise per second to 1.2paise per second.
“In some cases, free minutes have been reduced by 10-25% on MRP of the pack. MRP of some special value vouchers has been increased by Rs5-15,” Sandip Agarwal and Omkar Hadkar from Edelweiss Research said in a note.
The last time the telcos hiked tariffs was almost a year-and-a-half ago — by 20-50% back then.
Increasing cost of inputs and spectrum — especially considering the second round of 2G auctions is around the corner — has led them to do this again.
“We feel these (change in the tariffs) were inevitable, given the sharp input and energy price increases in the country. We are inclined to follow to maintain consistency and competitive position though we haven’t decided on our precise circle-wise moves,” Vodafone said in a statement.
The companies denied that there has been any hike in the base price, which varies from circle to circle and depends on different usage schemes.
However, Anil Kumar, secretary of NGO Telecom Watchdog, said, “There has been a hike of almost 20-30% in call tariffs by all leading players and it has been effective from October-November last year.”
50 paisa per sec. 
( 30 Rs per Minute )
