Your Cellphone Bills Will Get Larger, Airtel Says It May Go First

Bharti Airtel on Tuesday reported a 2.8 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 830 crore in the third quarter ended December 31, 2021, compared to Rs 854 crore in the same period a year ago.

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel may take lead in hiking mobile call and services rates this year as it looks to increase average revenue per user to Rs 200, a top official of the company said.

Airtel was the first telecom player to raise mobile services rates in the range of 18-25 per cent in November 2021.

The average revenue per user (ARPU), an indicator of a telco's profitability, of Airtel was at Rs 163 in October-December 2021, down 2.2 per cent year-on-year.

"I do expect a tariff hike sometime in 2022. I don't think it's going to happen in the next 3-4 months because the SIM consolidation and growth needs to come back but I do expect another round of tariff increase. Of course, it got to be determined by the competitors' dynamics. We would not hesitate to lead just as we have done in the recent past," Bharti Airtel MD and CEO for India and South Asia Gopal Vittal said.