Airtel India CEO endorses increase in mobile tariffs, snubs Jio’s 6p/min charge

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said rates of mobile services are unsustainable and need to be increased.
Airtel MD and CEO for India and South Asia, Gopal Vittal also snubbed Reliance Jio’s move to charge 6 paise per minute for voice calls made by its users on other networks, saying interconnection usage charges are not part of tariff but clearing charges among operators to transmit calls.

Jio has however said it will compensate users by giving free data of equal value. “We believe tariffs are unsustainable. We believe tariffs need to go up. We have always maintained this stand,” Vittal said on the sidelines of India Mobile Congress. Responding to a media query on Reliance Jio’s move he said, “IUC has nothing to do with tariff. It is a clearing house, cost of carrying calls. It is a bilateral thing settled among carriers. Over the last 20 years , IUC has always been absorbed.”