Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India have effectively hiked the tariff per usage for the 2G mobile data services. The telecom operators have nearly doubled the prices of 2G mobile data services by reducing the data availability from 1 GB to 512 MB for an offer of Rs 155. This is the second hike during the year after the increase in data prices in April 2014.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is of the view that the move intends to cover costs and improve margins for the operators as they are pushing the first-time smartphone users to use 3G services and encourage their existing 2G data users to experience faster speed on 3G network.
However, while the number of smartphone users has gone up by 205 per cent in a year, the leading telecom operators have seen less than eight per cent growth in 3G data services adoption.
