Indian telecom giant Airtel has increased its 2G rates as of last week. After the recent development, other telecom companies like Vodafone and Idea Cellular are also expected to do the same. The price hike has been done so as to help the company revive its financial conditions and also to improve its margins.
Sunil Mittal indicated that the company has been cutting down on freebies for its subscribers and has increased the price of its 1GB 2G data plan by 25%. Now Airtel 2G customers will have to pay Rs. 125 for 1GB of data, which was Rs. 100 earlier.
The company said that the latest revision in rates is subject to rate elasticity, customer demand and supporting cost structures. Sanjay Kapoor, the chief executive of India and the South India region said that the pricing of voice and non-voice services will have to be increased for the telecom industry to remain sustainable.
When Airtel was asked if they would also increase the call tariffs, the company did not respond. For the time being, the 2G rate hike is restricted to only the 1 GB plan, which is the most expensive among the six 2G data plan variants. Even Vodafone and Idea are also expected to increase the tariffs for their 2G data in upcoming weeks.
