Telcos stuck in ‘who-blinks-first’ logjam on price hikes: Analysts

New Delhi: India’s telecom operators are in a log-jam as far as price hikes are concerned. Despite calling for price hikes due to an urgent need to improve average revenue per user (ARPU), both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) have been shying away from initiating a price increase as they aren’t sure if their aggressive rival Reliance Jio will follow suit.

Kotak Institutional Equities predicts Jio and Airtel might maintain a status quo with current tariffs given their comparatively better financial position than Vi.