Mobile call, data to cost more as Vodafone Idea, Airtel hike rates

New Delhi Faced with intense competition and unprecedented statutory dues Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea on Monday announced a hike in mobile phone call and data charges from December saying the increase was warranted for viability of their businessFirst Vodafone Idea in a statement announced plans to raise tariffs for the first time in 3 years only to be followed by a similarly worded statement minutes later from AirtelThe two however did not quantify the increase in rates but said that the hike will be effective beginning next monthVodafone Idea last week reported consolidated loss of Rs 50921 crore highest ever loss posted by any Indian corporate for the second quarter ended September 30 on account of liability arising out of the Supreme Court order in the adjusted gross revenue caseTo ensure that its customers continue to enjoy world class digital experiences Vodafone Idea will suitably increase the prices of its tariffs effective December 1 2019 Vodafone Idea said in a statementThe company at present provides monthly mobile services at starting price of Rs 24 without data and plans with data service starts from Rs 33 onwards Airtel monthly plan starts at Rs 24 onward while scheme with data begins from Rs 35Vodafone Idea has last week said that its ability to continue as a going concern is dependent on obtaining relief from the government and positive outcome of the proposed legal remedy including a review petition before the apex courtFollowing the apex court judgement Bharti Airtel too raised similar concernsThe telecom sector is highly capital intensive with fast changing technology cycles that require continuing investments It is therefore extremely important that the industry remains viable to support the vision of Digital India Accordingly Airtel will appropriately increase price offerings in the month beginning December Bharti Airtel saidBharti Airtel which posted the highest ever loss of Rs 23045 crore last week said that it understands that telecom regulator Trai is likely to initiate a consultation for bringing rationality in pricing in the Indian mobile sector which has been operating at prices that have been eroding its viabilityThe Sunil Bharti Mittal led firm made provision of amount aggregating Rs 28450 crore after the AGR verdictVodafone Idea has estimated liability of Rs 44150 crore post the apex court order and made provisioning of Rs 25680 crore in the second quarter this fiscalThe acute financial stress in the telecom sector has been acknowledged by all stakeholders and a high level Committee of Secretaries CoS headed by the Cabinet Secretary is looking into providing appropriate relief Vodafone Idea saidVodafone India and Idea Cellular merged their telecom business to handle the tariff war in the sector triggered by the new entrant Reliance Jio in 2016The merged entity Vodafone Idea came into existence on August 31 last year as the biggest telecom operator in the country with 408 million mobile customersHowever the financial woes for the company did not end and the company lost over 100 million mobile subscribers since merger due to the cut throat tariff warAccording to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India prices of mobile data have fallen drastically by about 95 per cent to Rs 1178 per gigabyte GBMobile calling rates dipped by about 60 per cent to about 19 paise per minute between June 2016 December 2017Reliance Jio is offering unlimited voice calls in all it mobile services phone planPromoter firm Vodafone which holds majority stake of 4539 per cent in Vodafone Idea has said that the group will not infuse any further equity investment in the Indian telecom venture and reportedly similar stand has been taken by the Aditya Birla Group This leaves the company with no other option but to support operation from internal resourcesVodafone Idea said it has the largest spectrum footprint and by accelerating its network integration the company is rapidly expanding both its coverage and capacity and is well on track to offer 4G services to 1 billion Indian citizens by March 2020Catch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updatesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever