Airtel to cut discounted minutes; may raise tariffs to meet rising costs
On expected lines, the country’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said that it will continue to cut discounted minutes and may raise tariffs to meet rising costs as the market market reaches saturation in terms of tariff cuts.
Bharti Airtel Managing Director and CEO (India & South Asia) Gopal Vittal said -
“I think we will continue to see an opportunity to raise voice realization through continued cut back of discounted minutes… We will deter to touch headline tariff but at some point there may be some opportunity to raise headline tariffs.”
Airtel recently increased mobile services rates of both Internet and voice calls under certain schemes. It has been consistently cutting down freebies for the last few quarters in order to increase voice realization and improve profitability.
Vittal also said -
“With the rising cost of diesel, network cost, the cost of spectrum, the cost of fibre, the cost of actually rolling out networks, I think there is no question but to reduce discounted minutes. It has been happening over the last four quarters. If I look at secular basis over the next couple of years, there is no other option but for voice realization to go up.”
