Soon after the end of telecom spectrum auctions, telecom provider Airtel has revised its tariffs in Delhi and Mumbai circles. Under the latest revision, prepaid call rates for some Delhi and Mumbai plans have been hiked by 33 per cent if reports are to be believed.
Charges for Gold Plan in Delhi are up by 33 per cent to 2 paise per second and in Mumbai 106 Plan Voucher call rate has been hiked to 40 paise per minute. Earlier, Bharti Airtel said it expected that India will eventually have 5-6 mobile operators following a shakeout. The shakeout will take place through a combination of acquisitions, spectrum trading and sharing, it claimed. “There has to be some form of shakeout where you end up with five, may be six, operators. That will happen through a combination of three things – acquisitions, spectrum trading and sharing,” Bharti Airtel joint managing director and chief executive officer (India Operations) Gopal Vittal was quoted by PTI.
Further, Vittal contended that the spectrum holding of individual operators in India is very small. “If you look at the spectrum that is made available to operators in India, it is only around 40 per cent of the global average. This amount is divided into many operators, so the holding of individual operators is very small. Now the consequence of that is higher cost, more cost, more towers, more diesel,” he added.
Source: EFY Times
