Data charges to pinch Airtel’s pre-paid users in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Country’s top operator Bharti Airtel has raised mobile internet charges of 3G services by over 18 per cent for 1GB plans and 2G by over 13 per cent for pre-paid users in Delhi.

The 1GB of 3G data was earlier priced at Rs 255 and now it would be charged at Rs 299 with a validity of 28 days

Recently, Idea Cellular hiked the rates following the March spectrum auction.

The company has made changes in most of the pre-paid plans. For instance, for Rs 655, customers will get 2.5 GB of 3G data while earlier it was 3GB. For Rs 1555, users will get only 8 GB of 3G data as compared to 12 GB earlier, media reports said.

Airtel also recently increased rates for mobile internet packs, both 2G and 3G, sold online for pre-paid customers across the country.

At the same time, it withdrew all sorts of discounts that it was offering for online purchase of mobile data packs. Last year, telcos

including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea had increased data as well as call tariffs.

Industry bodies had predicted a mobile tariff hike following the spectrum auction, in which the government raked in Rs 1.1 lakh crore.