Substantial rise in mobile tariffs needed in India: Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal

Bharti Airtel on Wednesday hinted at substantial tariff hikes, saying that call charges in India were at an “absurdly low level” compared to other parts of the world, and that the domestic market was ready to absorb it.

Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal called for “tariff repair” to improve return ratios.

“The return that the industry really needs is predicated on tariff repair, this is really the heart of the problem that we have today, our pricing and tariffs are at an absurdly low level relative to any other part of the world. So, tariff repair is needed for return ratios to improve… it doesn’t matter which technology it comes from,” Vittal said during the company’s post-result analyst call.