New Delhi: Mobile services are becoming more expensive in the country soon. According to the Supreme Court order, telecom companies will have to pay 10 per cent of the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR4) within the next six months. It will be difficult for mobile companies to raise that money. Bharati Airtel, the country’s two largest telecom companies, will have to pay Rs 2,600 crore by March next year and Vodafone Idea by Rs 5,000 crore. To raise the money, Airtel will have to increase its customer revenue by 10 percent and Vodafone Idea by 28 percent. ଏଭଳି It is not possible to do such a miracle without increasing the price of the services they provide. Airtel currently has an average revenue of Rs 159 per customer, while Vodafone Idea costs Rs 119. The brokerage firm Jafaris estimates that telecom companies will soon increase their service prices by 10 percent. Not only is the decision of the Supreme Court, telecom companies have to continue to invest heavily in order to keep their infrastructure ready as data usage, including spectrum prices, is growing rapidly. The last time mobile operators announced an increase in service prices was about 40 percent in December 2016. That’s why Geo, Vodafone Idea and Airtel’s three-month packages have risen sharply. The price of the Geo 36 tank pack has risen to Rs 59. There has been a similar increase in Airtel tariff rates. After rising service prices, companies saw a 20 percent increase in their revenue.
