Son of Govinda
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Vodafone India Raises Call Prices - WSJ.com
MUMBAI -- Vodafone India Ltd., a unit of Vodafone Group PLC, Tuesday raised prices of local and intra-city calls for its on-contract customers by at least 20%, indicating increasing stabilization in India's low-priced telecoms market.
The Mumbai-based company increased rates to 1.2 paise per second (1 rupee=100 paise) from 1 paisa per second effective May 1, for customers on contract with the mobile services operator.
In July last year, Bharti Airtel Ltd., India's largest mobile phone operator by subscribers, along with Idea Cellular Ltd. and Vodafone India hiked call rates for some of their services. In August, second-ranked Reliance Communications Ltd. said it had also raised call tariffs.
The development is likely to add to a view chorused by the industry that high minimum prices proposed recently by India's telecom regulator for the auction of second-generation bandwidth will lead to higher prices for customers.
Stiff competition and lower entry prices have led to call rates remaining as low as less than a U.S. cent a minute.
On April 24, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman J.S. Sarma had said that high bid prices that the authority has proposed "shouldn't be a cause for revising tariffs". He added that call rates had fallen in the past three years due to competition, and not because of spectrum prices.
MUMBAI -- Vodafone India Ltd., a unit of Vodafone Group PLC, Tuesday raised prices of local and intra-city calls for its on-contract customers by at least 20%, indicating increasing stabilization in India's low-priced telecoms market.
The Mumbai-based company increased rates to 1.2 paise per second (1 rupee=100 paise) from 1 paisa per second effective May 1, for customers on contract with the mobile services operator.
In July last year, Bharti Airtel Ltd., India's largest mobile phone operator by subscribers, along with Idea Cellular Ltd. and Vodafone India hiked call rates for some of their services. In August, second-ranked Reliance Communications Ltd. said it had also raised call tariffs.
The development is likely to add to a view chorused by the industry that high minimum prices proposed recently by India's telecom regulator for the auction of second-generation bandwidth will lead to higher prices for customers.
Stiff competition and lower entry prices have led to call rates remaining as low as less than a U.S. cent a minute.
On April 24, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Chairman J.S. Sarma had said that high bid prices that the authority has proposed "shouldn't be a cause for revising tariffs". He added that call rates had fallen in the past three years due to competition, and not because of spectrum prices.