Aggressive tariff 'war': Mobile bills may drop 25-30 per cent: Experts

Thanks to the ongoing price 'war' in the telecom industry, analysist's are now predicting a 25-30 per cent average fall in tariffs over the next year.

Subscribers with heavy data usage can benefit directly from the price war between network providers that started after the aggressive positioning of Reliance Jio in the market.

Quoting telecom experts, the ET said that telecom users can expect a double-digit drop in prices owing to the advent of new "business models" that have shaped up amidst the "aggressive tariff war" since last year.

After Reliance Jio Infocomm entered the market with a free launch offer prices have fallen 25-32 per cent on average and 60-70 per cent for heavy data users.

To stop their customers from migrating to Jio, the Bharti AirtelBSE , Vodafone India, Idea CellularBSE cut prices, pushing the industry into an intense price war.

According to the reports, the average monthly spending on mobile bills has come down 25-28 per cent in a year to Rs 240-280 in 2017.

The continued price war may increase stress levels of the telecom industry. The government must take steps to avoid the industry from getting into bigger problems such as payment defaults, industry insiders opined.

Heavy data consumers have benefited the most as their bills have got slashed by 60-70 per cent. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, IDEA cellular have slashed voice and data rates. Reliance Jio is already providing cheap data and free voice calls.Some of the popular packages come with price tags of Rs 250 to Rs 500 and validity ranging from 28 days to 84 days. However, the biggest gainers of the price war will be heavy users, who use more than 8 GB Data per day.

Last week, media reports said that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) might cut Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) to 10 paise per minute as against 14 paise per minute for wireless to wireless local and national long distance calls.

TRAI has sought review from various stakeholders regarding this in a consultation paper.

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