The largest cellular service provider in India, Bharti Airtel, has raised the data tariffs for its pre-paid subscribers. This came as quite a shock to the users as this was the second incident this week. After Idea broke the heart of its customers by an enormous 100% hike in the data slabs for pre-paid customers, it was Airtel following the suite.
The company which has its operations in over 20 countries, has increased the rates in both 2G and 3G plans for pre-paid consumers, that are sold online. The company which has offered discounts over the online purchase of data packs has abjured all its offers and the rates will be on par with the offline sold data packs.
The telecom giant which has its interest in anti-net neutrality position, due to the TRAI regulations made certain changes in some of the online data packs and sources confirm the increase in the rates are effected in 10 of its packs.
For instance, the tariff plan for 2GB of data which has a validity of 30 days was offered at Rs.199, but the same pack is now available for 1.25GB of data for a validity of just 28 days.
Coming to 3G services, the company used to offer 1GB of 3G data at Rs.249 for a validity period of 30 days, against the present 1GB pack for 28 days of expiry at Rs.255. For improving profits, the telecom companies have been raising the data tariff rates and call rates, nullifying the discounts, offers and freebies provided. This was an unexpected move, provided by industry associations, that in order to comply with the commitments put forth by the Government, the tariff plans comprising both data and call shows a rise in price. We are pretty hopeful that the company might rethink on the tarrif plans and sober them down.
