Airtel voice calls to get costlier

New Delhi, Aug 7: In a bid to increase profitability, Bharti Airtel has hinted at a hike in tariff, saying that there was big opportunities in reducing the freebies.

MD and CEO of Bharti Airtel (India and South Asia), Gopal Vittal said,"Voice realisation is 30-33 paise per minute whereas our rack rates are almost about 90 paise, so there is huge headroom to reduce discounts."

Evidently, the company has increased data prices in the last few months, even though the company seems to be less bothered with it as data is increasing. What, however, concerns them is the fact that the number of calls are decreasing.

Vittal said,"We have made some changes in the last few months, lets see there is an opportunity to cut discounts on voice calls."

Not just Airtel, other companies like Idea Cellular, Vodafone, MTS have increased data prices for 2G and 3G. Post March spectrum auction, industry association said that there would a hike in tariff as operators have to meet commitment to the government.

OneIndia News