Reliance Communications, the country's second-largest mobile operator by subscribers, will raise calling rates by 25% from Friday to improve its operating margins, possibly setting the stage for all leading mobile phone companies to go in for a second round of tariff hikes in the last 12 months.
This will be the biggest tariff hike effected by the Anil Ambani company and will be the second bold step undertaken by the debt-ridden telco after it disconnected subscribers who had not used their phones for two months. This resulted in a 21-million decline in its subscriber base. RCOM's revised call rates will initially affect new customers and will be extended to its existing users when the validity of their current tariff plans expire. The company said it has revised its base price from 1.2 paise per second to 1.5 paise and this has initially been implemented in four states and be rolled out across the rest of the county within a month.
This will be the biggest tariff hike effected by the Anil Ambani company and will be the second bold step undertaken by the debt-ridden telco after it disconnected subscribers who had not used their phones for two months. This resulted in a 21-million decline in its subscriber base. RCOM's revised call rates will initially affect new customers and will be extended to its existing users when the validity of their current tariff plans expire. The company said it has revised its base price from 1.2 paise per second to 1.5 paise and this has initially been implemented in four states and be rolled out across the rest of the county within a month.
