Telecom Tariffs To Fall Significantly This Year: Industry Experts
The Mobile tariffs might see more downward pressure in the World’s cheapest Telecom market.The fall in tariffs may be to the extent of at least 20-25 per cent during the year says most industry experts.
The Telecom rates in India currently implies a local call rate of 33 paise (BSNL) and STD rates of 50 paise per minute (most mobile operators), making India-the home to lowest Telecom Tariffs in the World.
The fall in tariff is attributed to increasing number of telecom operators coupled with infrastructure overcapacity and other major factors.
New Telecom entrants (including Loop Telecom, Datacom Solutions and Unitech Wireless) are expected to commence operations in this year itself.This coupled with the expansion in operations of existing players like Reliance entry in GSM segment and expansions by other operators will seriously have an impact on the mobile tariffs.
Earlier TRAI estmiated that the country needs around 300,000 towers by 2010 to support the massive 10 million monthly subscriber additions which seem to be achieved much before the deadline due to the collaboration and sharing pact within telecom companies.
The sharing of Telecom infrastructure will significantly reduce operational expenses for telecom operators moving forward and may empower them to make a move towards lower tariff.
The recent slash in termination charges from 30 to 20 paise for domestic calls, also seems to have added to the tariff decline as the operators have begun passing on to the subscribers. Termination charges are the charges paid by one operator to another for terminating the calls on the latter’s network.
The increase in revenue with commencement of 3G in India would also see telecom operators lowering call tariffs by focussing more on deriving significant revenues from 3G and other value added services.
The introduction of Number portablity would also unleash tariff war amongst Telecom Operators as they try to retain their present susbcribers and attract new ones.
The fall in tariff may add boost to the fastest growing Telcom Market in the world and may also help in reaching new records in subscriber additions.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS Feed OR Email Alerts!
Leave a Comment and Follow the replies through Post Comment Feed