Consumers can expect more tariff cuts

By siliconindia   |   Friday, 09 October 2009, 15:13 IST
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Consumers can expect more tariff cuts
New Delhi: Mobile phone users can expect 20 to 25 percent cheaper rates in the coming months. After cutting mobile telephony tariffs 50 percent over the past five months, telecom operators are getting ready to slash rates another 25 percent in the next 2-3 months as new competitors crowd into the market. About five new operators are ready to start operations by the end of this year, adding to the over eight incumbents fighting it out to grab a share in a mobile market that is expected to grow to 750 million subscribers by 2012 against over 450 million at present, reports Business Standard. Last month, Tata Teleservices announced one paisa per second offer for its newly launched Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) services followed by a 50 paisa per minute offer by Reliance Communications, making it the first incumbent operator to join the price war. On Thursday, new operator Sistema Shyam Teleservices, which was launched under the MTS brand name in Delhi, has prepared a business plan predicated on more cuts. As part of the Delhi launch plan, MTS is offering two seconds of talk time for one paisa or effectively 30 paisa a minute for outgoing calls. However, in addition one has to pay one rupee a day for this offer. "We will see bloodbath in telecom tariffs. They have already fallen by half from an average of 70 paisa a minute to around 30 paisa a minute for local calls. We expect them to fall by another 20 percent," said Vsevold Rozanov, CEO of Sistema Shyam.

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