More tariff increases to take place in telecom sector, says Airtel CEO

BHARTI AIRTEL on Tuesday said there will be more tariff hikes in the telecom sector as current economic conditions are still quite poor.

- RAKESH KUMAR

Gopal Vittal, chief executive officer, while speaking at the earnings call of its second quarter FY 2024-25, also mentioned that there has been 31 rounds of tariff hikes, and more are to come to improve the industry.

"We have just gone through one round of repair. We should wait for it to fully settle. But clearly, there's more to be done in this market. I think the current economics are still quite poor and really need to improve dramatically," said Vittal.

In July 2024, Airtel increased tariff up to 25% in its prepaid plans. Subsequently, during the September quarter, Airtel lost nearly 2.9 million customers due to SIM consolidation triggered by the tariff hike. However, Vittal downplayed the impact of this subscriber loss, describing it as milder than previous instances.