Indian telco’s profit to be hit by lower call rates

www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The tariff war engulfing India’s telecommunication industry and extreme competition in the telecom market is likely to hit the profits of the telecom operators in the October-December quarter.  A decline of 6% to 13% is expected in Average revenue per user, or ARPU.

Only Bharti Airtel Ltd is expected to post an ARPU of more than INR200 in the fiscal third quarter. The price war was started by Tata DoCoMo by introducing per-second billing plans in June. Reliance Communications Ltd. joined the league with a plan in October by offering INR0.5 per minute, and subsequently all operators launched per-second schemes.

Aggressive billing plans launched by new players entering the market also forced established companies to slash call charges to acquire and retain customers.