NEW DELHI: Leading telecom service provider Bharti Airtel on Friday hiked call tariffs by 20% in six major circles including New Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The hike in tariff will be passed on to pre-paid customers as well.
Tariffs have been hiked from 1 paise per second to 1.2 paisa per second. Sources say that other telecom players will follow suit. Bharti Airtel stock price rallied by 4% and was trading at Rs 411 at 2:50 PM on the BSE.
Bharti Airtel added 2.12 million mobile subscribers in June, taking its total to 169.2 million, data from Cellular Operators Association of India said.
India is the world's second-biggest mobile-phone market after China. Bharti, the fifth-largest mobile operator globally by subscribers, operates in 19 countries in South Asia and Africa.
Earlier this month, Bharti Airtel announced it was streamlining its India and South Asia operations to create a leaner cost structure in order to boost its financial performance.
The restructuring comes as Bharti battles fierce domestic competition that has slashed call rates and is grappling with high interest costs on debt accumulated to purchase mobile licences in India and to expand into Africa.
Bharti paid $10.7 billion last June for the Africa business of Kuwaiti telecom operator Zain.
Its interest costs have soared due to the African purchase as well as from paying $3.3 billion to buy third-generation ( 3G )) spectrum in India to offer mobile and wireless broadband services.
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