‘Indian telcos have enough headroom to increase tariffs’

India’s telecom tariffs are amongst the lowest in the world as a percentage of per capita gross national income (GNIpc), and the country’s telcos have enough headroom to raise prices by at least 1.5x over the next 4-5 years, industry executives and analysts said. GNIpc is the dollar-value of a country’s final income in a year divided by its population. Accordingly, the lower the tariff as a percentage of GNIpc, the more affordable the services in that country.

Among comparable nations with a GNIpc of less than $10,000, India’s telecom tariffs are the second lowest at 1.11% of GNIpc after Brazil’s 0.92%, as per macro data collated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the World Bank. Telecom tariffs are much higher in South Africa (3.49% of GNIpc), Thailand (2.92%), the Philippines (2.32%), Indonesia (1.71%), Egypt (1.6%), and Bangladesh (1.4%), data showed.