Fresh tariff war to determine telecom's future

New Delhi: Telecom operators are going for fresh wave of cuts in data and voice call rates as battle for consumer is set to enter a new phase from April 1 which will define the future of the telecom players in India.

However, most of the benefits are being targeted at 4G subscribers where competition is fierce as being targeted by Reliance Jio.

Reliance Jio which launched its services in September 2016 has said that it will start charging its customers from 1 April but at sharply discounted rates.

Till now old telecom operators were refusing to match Reliance Jio saying that  they cant give their service for free. But with Jio planning to charge customers from April 1, old telecom operators are feeling pressurised to further cut their rates to try to match Jio to retain their customers, said analysts. India’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel has quietly cut data and voice charges.

For example for a post paid subscriber for around Rs 500 earlier a customer used to get 1 GB 4G/3G  data and free voice calling facility, now the company is offering 3 GB data and free voice call for the same price.

Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal has reached out to post-paid subscribers promising more data to them starting March 13, which they can access through their mobile applications.

For pre-paid consumers the company is offering 4GB data at Rs 265 and 10 GB for Rs 494 for those who have 4G handsets.

Vodafone too launched the Rs 346 recharge pack valid till March 15 which offers 28GB of mobile data and unlimited free calls.

“Vodafone customers are diverse as are their wants. To satisfy these diverse needs and wants, Vodafone offers various segmented propositions. This is one such segmented offering and the offer is valid only till 15 March,” said a company spokesperson.

Reliance Communications on Friday too came out with a new offering that provides 1GB data to new 4G customers for Rs 49 whereas 3GB data will be priced at Rs 149 plus free, unlimited local and STD calls within its network. RCom has also announced variants of the plan for its 3G and 2G customers, including unlimited 3G data access for Rs 99 and unlimited 2G data access for Rs 49.