Bharti Airtel, India’s leading Telecom carrier has recently announced that it has raised the prices of some of its Airtel mobile plans to account for rising cost. Following the steps of the leading operator, Idea Cellular has also declared that they have raised the prices of Idea mobile plans by withdrawing their promotional offers in few circles.
This step taken by Airtel has increased their shares by 4 % whereas after hearing the news, other operators also hiked their rates resulting hike in shares of Telecommunications companies. Alex Mathews, the Head Research in Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services has further reported that the news of price hike in Airtel call tariffs has taken Telecom stock market up by 4 to 5 %.
According to the Sensex reports, on Thursday the shares of Bharti Airtel closed at Rs 367.25 up 4.44 % on BSE and on NSE the stock ended at Rs 367.65, up 4.55 per cent from its previous close. Whereas, stocks of Idea Cellular were closed at Rs. 118.50 which is up by 0.72 %.
Giving its green signal to the price hike, Vodafone has indicated to increase their tariff rates as one of their representative, they have to maintain steadiness and competitive position in the market with other operators, so sooner the prices of Vodafone mobile plans could rise.
According to the Economic Times, Airtel has raised their call rates by 50% making it just double from Re. 1 per minute to Rs. 2 per minute. Further, it has also reduced its free call minutes by 10 to 25 % and raised their SPV rates ranging between Rs. 5 to 15. Whereas, Idea Cellular has raised its call rates from 1.2 paisa per second to 2 paisa per second.
It was predictable earlier this month when Telecom operators have raised their data tariffs, that there might be a further increase in voice calls as well. Before this month, Vodafone and Airtel have raised their 2G data prices, whereas, Airtel revised its 2G data plan of 1 GB from Rs 100 to Rs 125.
Where other operators are planning to raise prices, Reliance mobile plans and BSNL mobile plans are still unchanged as well as the operators have not yet commented on this move. The price hike is the result of the heavy airwave surcharges for which the Telecom operators have to pay billions of dollars to the government.
