The Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, Shri Milind Deora has said that the operators have the flexibility to fix the tariff for mobile services depending on the market conditions and other commercial considerations subject to the regulatory principles of non-discrimination, compliance of Interconnection Usage Charges (IUC) and non predation.

“The tariff for mobile services has shown a continuous downward trend for several years. In the recent past, however, some mobile operators like Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular  Vodafone, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and ircel have hiked tariff applicable for certain plans and packs” he told Rajya Sabh on Friday.   

While providing justification for the hike, the Service Providers have inter-alia referred to high 3G and BWA auction prices.