MTS, promoted by Sistema Shyam Teleservices ltd, has decided to hold on to its tariff for now even as other major players have hiked rates in a the latest tariff war led by leaders like Vodafone, Airtel and RCOM, who have raised rates to the extent of 20 per cent.
Speaking to The Pioneer, MTS India sources said that they were aware of the industry move but did not say that it would raise tariffs in the coming days. “We are watching the dynamics,” sources said even as there was no immediate move on this account.
In the wake of Reliance Jio impending entry in the mobile segment in a big way, mobile operators have been keeping their options open and have refrained from hiking tariffs, which they fear may lead to an erosion of their customer base.
last week, Vodafone, Airtel as well as RCOM hiked their tariffs in their pre-paid plans and even scaled down their schemes in the pre-paid section, which comprises 90 per cent of the telcos revenues. Infact, market leaders like Vodafone, Idea as well as Airtel have been refraining from hiking the headline rates but RCOM had gone ahead and hiked headline rates by as much as 20 per cent. RCOM raised base rates from Rs 1.5 to Rs 1.6 per second in its prepaid plans. At the same time, Airtel has reduced its talk time from Rs 48 to Rs 38 as against earlier when it was available for the full paid-up amount. While Vodafone has reduced its validity from 30 days to 24 days on promotional pack vouchers.
However, the higher anticipated outgo in terms of expenses in operation as well as pumping more funds in their recently acquired licences in the recently concluded 2G auctions have put enormous pressure on telecos. Besides this, the saturation in the tariffs has left little room for further cuts in rates in either voice or data tariffs.
MTS, which one of the buggest player in data services and is operated by Sistema Shyam Teleservices ltd has reported higher consolidated revenues for the final quarter for calendar year 2013 by 5.3 per cent however saw a reduction in full year revenue which saw a fall to Rs 12,270 million due to reduced operating footprint. The company has also reported a rise in the data card base by 11 per cent to 1.34 million through its HSD services which now covers 550 towns and nine circles.It also reported higher non-voice revenues from both data and mobile VAS which has witnessed an increase by 5.2 per cent to Rs 1030 million.
SSTl has also made investments to the tune of Rs 374 million during last quarter 2013 even as net losses during the quarter reduced by 41 per cent over that same period in the previous year.