New Delhi Jan 27 PTI Telecom operators will have to provide recharge plans with a validity of 30 days for pre-paid customers regulator Trai said on Thursday The move is expected to reduce the number of recharges done by a customer during a year At present telecom operators provide recharge plans with a validity of 28 days in the pre-paid segment which leads to 13 recharges during the year for customers who look to recharge on a monthly basis Every telecom service provider shall offer at least one plan voucher one special tariff voucher and one combo voucher having a validity of thirty days Trai said in a notification The notification mandates mobile phone service providers to provide one plan voucher one special tariff voucher and one combo voucher which shall be renewable on the same day of every month Further telecom companies have been mandated to comply with the order within 60 days from the day of notification of the rules PTI PRS RAM

New Delhi Nov 22 PTI Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Monday announced 20-25 per cent tariff hikes for various prepaid offerings including tariffed voice plans unlimited voice bundles and data top-ups and said the new rates will come into effect from November 26The entry-level tariffed voice plan has been raised by about 25 per cent while for unlimited voice bundles the increase in most cases is about 20 per cent Sunil Mittal led telco -- whose India mobile customer base stood at about 323 million at the last count -- has also increased the tariffs for data top-up plans by about 20-21 per centIn a statement announcing the revised mobile tariffs Airtel said it has always maintained that the mobile Average Revenue Per User ARPU needs to be at Rs 200 and ultimately at Rs 300 to provide a reasonable return on capital that allows for a financially healthy business modelWe also believe that this level of ARPU will enable the substantial investments required in networks and spectrum Even more important this will give Airtel the elbow room to roll out 5G in India an Airtel statement saidAs a first step towards this the company said it is taking the lead in rebalancing tariffs during NovemberIn tariffed voice plans the new rate is Rs 99 against the current Rs 79 - which works out to an increase of 253 per cent This comes with 28 days validity and benefits like 50 per cent more talk time worth Rs 99 200MB data 1psec voice tariffThe other categories where a hike has been announced are unlimited voice bundles and data top-upsThis is the first time after a long gap that the company has hiked tariffs at this scalePreviously the revision had been to a limited extent For instance in July this year Airtel discontinued its Rs 49 prepaid recharge raising entry-level pricing to improve realisations and also upgraded its postpaid plansThe hikes are far-reaching this time aroundIn the unlimited voice bundle Airtels plan priced at Rs 149 will now be Rs 179 with a validity of 28 days and benefits such as unlimited calling 100 SMSday 2 GB data even as at the top end the Rs 2498 plan has been hiked to Rs 2999 and comes with 365 days for unlimited calling 100 SMSday and 2 GBday dataFor data top-ups the Rs 48 plan would now cost Rs 58 offering 3 GB data while the Rs 98 plan has been increased to Rs 118 with 12 GB dataAirtel has also announced a tariff hike in Rs 251 data top-up plan which will now cost Rs 301 with 50 GB dataIt is pertinent to mention here that Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal had earlier this year said the industrys tariffs need to go up amid tremendous stress in the telecom sectorThe company has been of the view that mobile industry ARPUs Average Revenue Per User is not sustainable and should improve to Rs 200 in the near term and Rs 300 in the longer termFor the just-ended quarter Airtels mobile ARPU increased to Rs 153With Airtel announcing the tariff reset many industry watchers expect Vodafone Idea and Jio to follow similar linesVodafone Idea CEO Ravinder Takkar during a recent post-earnings investor call of the company had asserted that tariff hike remains critical for continued revival of the sectorTakkar said the company has started working on raising mobile tariffs and it is expected to be in place very soonSome activity on tariff hikes has started to happen Tariff hikes which are the next important step will also take place soon For us particularly as a company we will not shy away from raising tariffs Takkar had saidThe telecom sector is buoyant and upbeat after the government recently approved a blockbuster revival package that includes a four-year break for companies from paying statutory dues permission to share scarce airwaves change in the definition of revenue on which levies are paid and 100 per cent foreign investment through the automatic routeThe measures -- aimed at providing relief to telecom service providers that have to pay thousands of crores in unprovisioned past statutory dues -- also include the scrapping of Spectrum Usage Charge SUC for airwaves acquired in future spectrum auctions PTI MBI BAL BAL

New Delhi Oct 22 PTI Telecom regulator TRAI Friday said some broadcasters are exploiting the freedom available for a-la-carte pricing of TV channels and warned that it will keep a strict watch on them and not shy away from taking action in the larger interest of consumers and the sectorWith an increase in TV channel subscription rates impending the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India TRAI said in a statement that the new tariff recently announced by these leading broadcasters reflects their intention to raise the prices of driver and popular channelsDriver channels include general entertainment channels GEC and sports channelsThe telecom regulator however did not name any broadcasterMoreover a sustained misleading campaign is being run to create an impression that the impending price increase is due to the NTO 20 new tariff order and broadcast regulationsIt is being publicised that anyevery consumer who opts top GEC channels or sports channels will end-up paying an extra amount of Rs 100 the TRAI saidThis is a fictional pretention as the NTO 20 does not entail or prescribe any condition for increasing prices it saidTRAI is aware that prices of some of the channels announced by the broadcasters are unsustainable as these are not demand driven or market determined prices and are against the interest of consumers the regulator saidThe price hike has been announced by broadcasters on their own in the garb of complying to the NTO 20 which is not true and rather an attempt to defeat the purpose of the NTO 20 that has already benefited the consumers to a large extent it addedThe TRAI said the purpose of the amendments to regulations for broadcasting for cable services sector was to ensure that no service provider corners undue gains and profiteers at the expense of consumersIt is important to note that the channel pricing remained under prescribed ceiling for 15 years since 2004 it saidHowever the new framework provided freedom to the broadcasters to fix prices of their television channels with certain conditions for inclusion into a bouquet the TRAI saidSome broadcasters revised prices in compliance to the NTO20 thereby passing on certain benefits to the consumers it saidFew other broadcasters are now exploiting freedom available for a-la-carte pricing of television channels The new tariff announced by these leading broadcasters reflect their intention to increase prices of driver and popular channels it said The regulator said that the new framework NTO 20 is a comprehensive code that balances interests of the service providers as-well-as the consumers The framework should result into reducing prices for the consumersOnce implemented in true letter and spirit it will bring in an era of transparent tariffs and usher in better channel content at most competitive prices it saidIn addition the TRAI will also keep a strict watch over the developments and will not shy away from reviewing certain provisions including forbearance allowed to the broadcasters in the larger interest of consumers and the broadcasting sector it addedThe regulator said it is conscious of the time required for the implementation of necessary changes to be carried out to incorporate the considered choices of 150-160 million pay television homesTherefore TRAI may review the time frame provided for implementation to help consumers in making informed choices it added PTI PK PK TIR TIR TIR