TOI

Bangalore, Aug 9: Starting this month, making a long-distance (STD) call from mobile phones has become costlier. Hutch-Essar was the first to announce a 10.41% hike in long-distance tariffs for its prepaid mobile customers on Aug 6. Bharti Airtel too has raised the tariffs for its prepaid and postpaid mobile phone customers by up to 32%.

This means Hutch-users will now pay Rs 2.65 per minute, instead of Rs 2.40 to call other networks, while Airtel subscribers will pay Rs 2.65, up from Rs 2, for an STD call in case of a prepaid connection and Rs 2.40 instead of Rs 2 for postpaid subscribers. An Airtel spokesperson said, "This is not a price hike. Our standard tariffs on prepaid and postpaid are Rs 2.40 and Rs 2.65, respectively. Earlier, we were giving a discounted calling to Airtel network. We’re now standardising the Airtel STD calling to normal tariffs."

Hutch chose to categorise this as a management decision. But Neha Gupta, senior research analyst at Gartner India, said, "This correction was inevitable. India has had the lowest rates for mobile telephony. It has been a matter of discussion as to how long service providers could sustain such low price levels. To maintain quality, service providers had to hike rates." Adds Amit Aggarwal, analyst at consultancy firm Zinnov, "There is pressure on operators to revive their bottom line. Revenues from value-added services are not bringing expected returns. Hutch and Airtel have hiked their prices marginally on default plans. A subscriber with high STD usage can still avail the benefit on One India plan with Re 1/min."

These changes will not be applicable to customers who are less than six months old on the network. Bharti subscribers, who have availed of lifetime validity, easy lifetime validity, Airtel Yuva card or Airtel Youth pack, will be exempt from these changes. Similarly, Hutch has exempted those who have opted for their special offers namely Chalta Rahe, easy Chalta Rahe and 295 SKU .