| Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile carrier by subscriber base, today reduced tariffs of 4G services by more than 30% to make it at par with the prevailing 3G data tariffs. Last year, operators had reduced 3G tariffs by 70-80%. With the price cut, a 2GB data pack would cost Rs 450 per month on 4G, Bharti Airtel said in a statement. A similar 2GB data pack costs Rs 450 per month in 3G. In some cases, Airtel has brought 4G tariffs down below the existing 3G prices. While the new price for 3GB data pack in 4G is Rs 650, Airtel charges Rs 675 for 3.1GB data pack in 3G. The development comes just within a week after the top three mobile service providers — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular — reduced 2G data prices by 80-90% in select service areas, aiming to get fresh data customers primarily in the smaller towns in the 'pay as you go' model. Interestingly, the revised 4G tariffs are similar with the revised 3G tariffs (reduced last year). But operators have said that there is not scope to reduce 3G tariffs further. Number of 3G subscribers has increased in the past one year, but still data revenue from all services still accounts to just about 5-7% of telecom operators in India. The reduction in 4G tariffs may not be just a step to attract users given the fact that Bharti Airtel is the lone 4G service provider in India. And, that's too in just four service areas — Bangalore, Kolkata, Pune and Chandigarh, where it has just a few thousand customers. While Bharti declined to give subscriber details, Milind Deora, minister of state for communications and information technology, had, in September 2012, informed the Lok Sabha that the company had signed up just 3,180 subscribers for 4G. "The decision to reduce prices for 4G is not just to get more customers, or encourage the existing 3G users to 4G. Bharti has already making the pitch ready for a price war in 4G. When Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio launches 4G services (expected early next year) it will have to keep prices at par with the prevailing market rates, if not lower. It is most likely that the market will have another round of price revision after Reliance Jio launches its services," said an analyst with a management consulting firm, seeking anonymity. However, this is not the first time companies have revised data prices. In January this year, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular had increased tariff for 2G data, which contributes about four% of revenues of telecom operators, by 25%, keeping the 3G prices unchanged to reduce the gap between 2G and 3G tariff. Bharti Airtel's 4G data plans now start at Rs 450 per month offering 2GB of 4G data. Other monthly 4G plans include 3GB for Rs 650, 4GB for Rs 750, 10GB for Rs 999, 12GB for Rs 1,299, 15GB for Rs 1,449, 25GB for Rs 2,049, 45GB for Rs 2,999, and 80GB for Rs 4,799. But, users opting for the lower priced plans will not get any free access to movies and games on demand. Only plans above Rs 999 per month will have access to Airtel's 4G entertainment library. "Operators are trying to increase data usage and that's why there are price revisions across services. Price revision depends on market demand. In most of the cases, operators are offering lower tariffs for the incremental usages. Speed is the key for users. Subscribers are not bothered about the technology. Higher speed at a reasonably lower cost would definitely boost data usages," said Rajan Mathew, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). However, Bharti Airtel is unlikely to witness existing 3G customers opting to shift to 4G as they would need to invest additionally for devices, which are expensive. Airtel offers LTE compatible wireless devices including multi-mode USB dongles (priced at Rs 4,999) and Indoor Wireless gateway (Rs 7,750) that converts the 4G connection to Wi-Fi network which can be shared across multiple devices. Bharti Airtel had 43 million data users, of which six million are 3G subscribers, till March 31, 2013. The company's data subscriber base rose 22% during January-March 2013 quarter and its data revenue per user increased 25% during the quarter. It gets about 6.5% of total revenue from data.  via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNEBfTzdwlUwzvWM1ckj3x8Av7Co7g&url=http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/bharti-brings-down-4g-tariffs-at-par-with-3g-113062400782_1.html | |||
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