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Mobile tariffs will rise significantly in the coming months, according to Mr Sunil Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel.
This will happen because operators will try to offset the lower revenue from rural markets, where users typically make fewer phone calls than in cities and towns. So far, operators in the country boasted the lowest tariffs in the world. But increasing pressure on margins and rising costs have forced operators to increase tariffs.
Over the past few months, Airtel, Tata DoCoMo and Reliance Communications have increased tariffs. Mr Mittal's comments indicate that there could be more hikes in the near future.
Mr Mittal added that the Government should be liberal and judicious in allocating spectrum.
Speaking on the sidelines of an industry event, he said operators have paid far too much to obtain spectrum for offering third-generation mobile phone services. Operators including Airtel, Vodafone and Idea together paid more than Rs 1 lakh crore to the Government for bandwidth to offer 3G mobile services and wireless broadband in India.
In addition, the Government is looking to price 2G spectrum also which will put further pressure on operators to increase tariffs.
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