Airtel hints at hike in voice calling rates

[Sarkar]

In view of improving actual realisation per minute, Bharti Airtel, on Thursday hinted at a hike in tariff saying that there was a big opportunity in reducing discounts and freebies on voice calls.
"Voice realisation is 30-33 paise per minute whereas our rack rates are almost about 90 paise, so there is huge headroom to reduce discounts," Bharti Airtel (India & South Asia) MD & CEO Gopal Vittal said.
The company has increased data prices in the last few months.
Vittal, though said the company is less concerned about data prices because data is growing, the challenge is voice realisation, which needs to be increased.
"We have made some changes in the last few months, lets see there is an opportunity to cut discounts on voice calls," Vittal said.
Apart from Airtel, other operators including Idea Cellular, Vodafone, MTS have increased data prices for 2G and 3G.
In a bid to improve profitability, telcos have been cutting back on discounts and freebies. Last year too, telecom firms had increased data as well as call tariffs.
After the March spectrum auction, industry associations had said there would be hike in tariffs as operators have to meet the commitment to the government.

Airtel hints at hike in voice calling rates - Business Today- Business News

 

[Bishnu15]

Airtel itself is very costly, jow it wants to become more costly.

 

[Rahulan Raj]

We know wht's the motive of Airtel ; So no surprise once they infiltrated into the market

 

[Anup Tiwari]

in mp vodafone increased price every pack. 22 rs package (1.4 paise / 2 second) increased price 28 and cut days to 14 from 28

 

[Sarkar]

Airtel itself is very costly, jow it wants to become more costly.

costly ok but they should fix poor voice quality and call drop issue immediately :angry

 

[jenius-jatt]

To give good service Its their duty & every mobile company has to take care of that not just increasing the number of users apart from that they should update infrastructure as well for better performance. Increasing price is very bad as already all data+call rates are very costly.