Telecom Tuesday: Idea, Sistema, Aircel, Vodafone join the Tariff war

Suddenly Indian Telecom Sector is buzzing with new super attractive tariff plans – The Tariff war started by Tata DOCOMO seems to have forced other players to match or even better the offerings announced by them.

Tata DOCOMO was first to announce the per second billing, but all others are following suit quickly.

• India’s third-largest operator Vodafone Essar has announced per second billing in Madhya Pradesh circle.
• Sistema Shyam Teleservices has announced per second billing in  Delhi and will introduce it in all the circles where it launches operations.
• Aircel Cellular has opted for the per second offer in five circles (Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal, Kolkata and Kerala) and is likely to extend it to Delhi soon.
• IDEA Cellular announced introduction of  pay-per-second-billing  called ‘Super Seconds’ in Bihar and Jharkhand’s GSM mobile service subscribers markets.
  (source)

Most of the operators have either embraced or are testing waters with per-second billing in select circles. For others who have not opted for it, like Reliance, have offered ultra-low flat rates of 50p per call.

Idea on the other hand (apart from Bihar and Jharkhand) have gone even lower with 40p per call in all the circles including Maharashtra and Mumbai.

Now the question is – till when is this tariff war going to last? We are already lowest in the world by a long margin – close to 2 cents for local call and 3 cents for STD calls.

I was watching an interesting discussion yesterday on CNBC TV18 where one particular statement by Mr. Sanjeev Aga, Chairman & CEO – IDEA, reflected the current scenario of Telecom Tariffs –

The price bottom keeps changing. But, it is not going to last for long. The prices have to stabilize soon or else it may spell doom to Indian Telecom Industry.