Airtel, Vodafone, Idea raise 2G data plan tariff

  
Leading mobile phone companies Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have significantly raised rentals of 2G data plans over the past week, industry insiders revealed, as they try to improve sales numbers and margins in this fiercely competitive sector.

Airtel's Delhi and Mumbai customers will now get only 525MB of free data when they pay Rs 125 for a 2G data plan while 1 GB data will be available for Rs 154.

Idea and Vodafone also have made similar changes in their data plans.

The move is in stark contrast to that of Reliance Communications, which reduced its 3G data plan prices to Rs 123 for 1 GB of data.

At present, incumbent GSM carriers offer 3G plans upwards of Rs 250 for 1 GB data. A Bharti Airtel executive said that the company was going ahead with cutting discounts in various circles and withdrawing free minutes and data as it had done in the past. He added that the reductions have only come into effect for prepaid customers that make up a large chunk of the cellular company's customer base.

An executive from Vodafone added that the company had not touched headline tariffs and merely lowered the amount of free data.

Idea Cellular did not respond to queries from ET.

Prepaid customers constitute over 96% of the country's 900-million plus cellphone connections. India's telecom sector has faced turbulent times in the last few years, mainly due to intense competition that drove down call rates to the lowest in the world.

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