Bharti Airtel, India's leading mobile operator on Wednesday said that its has hiked voice call rate citing escalating costs as reason for raising tariff.
 
While other carries are expected to follow suit, Idea Cellular too said on Wednesday that it had raised the voice call rates in some parts of the country. It also said that it is withdrawing promotional offers. Details of these are awaited.
 
According to reports Vodafone also has announced hike in call rates.
 
Indian telecom operators have raising the pitch for the higher tariff ever since the government decided to significantly hike the reserve price for 2G auction held in November last year. The second round of auction will take place in March this year.
 
Bharti Airtel said that it did not increase headline tariffs but reduced promotional benefits and free minutes offered to customers. It said in a statement that the price change was in line with the increase in its costs.
 
The price war till three years back in India forced the operators to slash the call rates which impacted their financials. India has more than 900 million phone customers.
 
According to sources Airtel has cut free minutes by 10 to 25 percent price of SPVs has been hiked by Rs. 5- Rs. 15.

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