NEW DELHI: Indian telecom industry<\/a> could witness a potential price hike of 15-20% in coming months due to weakening subscribers growth, analysts said, adding that Vodafone Idea<\/a> will be the first telco to hike prices.
\"A price hike, which looked uncertain in the last 6-9 months due to the challenging economic scenario, has started to look imminent with weakening subscriber growth across players. Our recent interactions with industry<\/a> experts indicate a potential price hike of 15-20% in the next two months,\" Motilal Oswal<\/a> Financial Services said in a report.
CLSA<\/a> said that delays in floor tariff could force Vodafone Idea to raise prepaid tariff in 3-6 months as the telco stares at a financial crisis in absence of any funding, weak liquidity position and reducing subscriber growth.
Vodafone Idea has hiked tariffs by 7-9% in two plans and for now in one of 22 circles in India. Vodafone Idea postpaid tariffs are now 7% higher versus Bharti Airtel<\/a> and about 60% higher versus Reliance Jio in comparable data plans.
Bharti Airtel is not following Vodafone Idea’s recent postpaid tariff hikes, as they are limited and in select plans. Also, Bharti Airtel has been gaining subscribers and increasing revenue market share, CLSA said.
\"With an intensifying market-share battle, sector floor tariffs will be preferred, in our view. And even if Bharti Airtel does not lead in tariff hikes, it had the best flowthrough of Dec-19 increases and its Arpu is at a 12-24% premium to peers,\" CLSA added.
CLSA said that Vodafone Idea’s select postpaid hikes and mixed signals in prepaid tariffs are not leading Bharti Airtel to follow, especially as it is also gaining subscribers - 10 million in 1HFY21 versus a mere 1 million in FY20) - despite premium tariffs to Reliance Jio, CLSA said.
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