In the latest sign of price rationalization in India's wireless market, Reliance Communications has hiked its prepaid voice rates by up to 30%.
The company has increased its tariffs nationwide for both GSM and CDMA services, effective immediately. In a statement sent to India's Economic Times, RCom CEO Gurdeep Singh said rates have been raised by between 20% and 30%.
Singh said recent developments in the sector – including a looming consolidation phase, as well as some operators shutting down services or scaling back their operations in the wake of the cancellation of 122 2G licenses - are helping to ease the hypercompetitive nature of the market.
This should enable operators to adopt more sensible pricing strategies that are sustainable in the long-term.
A longstanding price war among India's mobile operators had pushed the prevailing rate as low as 1 paise ($0.000018) per second, with some operators going further and offering half-paise per second plans. As a result of this intense competition, many Indian operators have long considered consolidation to be an inevitability.
But there is growing evidence that this price war is finally starting to abate. In January, mobile giants Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular both substantially hiked their standard voice call rates.