Bhubaneswar: India is the country where mobile internet data rates are among the lowest in the world.
Mobile data rates are lowest as compared to China, Japan and South Korea.
But, it won’t be so from December, Indian customers may have to pay more for data.
Market Players:
This is because Airtel, Jio, Vodafone-Idea and BSNL have announced to increase the price of mobile internet data soon.
Airtel and Vodafone-Idea have more than half the revenue share in the Indian market.
Supreme Court Verdict:
Recently both companies have reported a loss of Rs. 71.7 crore in the second quarter of the current financial year.
While dealing with an old case, the Supreme Court has recently ordered that all telecom companies will have to pay Rs 90,000 crore to the government.
Post this verdict, Vodafone has recently issued a statement, “Despite the rapidly increasing demand for mobile data based services, mobile data prices in India are among the lowest in the world.
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Companies Issue Notices:
Vodafone Idea will raise its tariffs appropriately from 1 December 2019 so that its customers continue to have a world-class digital experience.
A similar statement has been issued by Airtel.
No information has been available about what the new rates will be.
Jio and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) have also made similar announcements.
The prices were low because there were many players in the telecom sector .
The prices further fell because the number of customers increasing faster than other countries of the world.
There are 22 telecom circles in India and they have three categories – A, B and C. Among these, Jio, Airtel and other companies wanted to create new customers in the circles of C category (such as Odisha).
Customers Spend More:
Customers in these circles spend less amount on the data every month, but their number is so high that, total earnings become good.
This trend is on the decline now. The companies are left with no other person but to increase the prices by 15-20 percent.
Hence, the customers will end up paying more to get mobile internet.
Ms Kalinga