News-Bharti Airtel and Idea is planning to cut the promotional offers such as free talk time across a major segment of the circles. This in turn will result in a bill rise for the users of these providers.
The rise will differ depending upon the circle and the usage system for pre-paid users and in a few other cases the monthly outgo may get a rise of 25 percent as reported by the sources.
It may be possible to reduce the validation time of vouchers, and full talk time services may get increased so users may have to spend more on recharges to get the benefits.
Vodafone India and Idea Cellular haven’t confirmed the price changes yet but Airtel has disclosed them.
“Company would evaluate price corrections after seeing Airtel’s moves” Himanshu Kapania MD at Idea said.
Vodafone stated that they are feeling the inevitable, given the sharp input and energy price increases in the country and they are studying these moves individually across the circles. The company is maintaining consistency and competitive position though they haven’t decided on their precise-wise moves.
The competition made Indian telecom companies move the rates down, but they are now finding it tough to maintain tariffs.
95 percent of the mobile users are pre-paid and the companies are focusing on profitability instead of getting a strong customer base.
The last price hike made users pay 1.2 paisa per second rather than 1 paisa as they used to do previously on voice calls.
“We have spent on new a spectrum, there is a one-time fee so we have to evaluate the situation. But a big hike is not possible considering there is still hyper competition and over capacity still exists. Volumes have been impacted earlier when corrections have been implemented,” said Idea’s Kapania.
