NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel does not expect the entry of new players in an already competitive market to push mobile tariffs down drastically, it’s deputy CEO said. Bharti, which has nearly 97 million mobile users and more than 100 million customers in total, will strive to keep costs low and gain more profitable users, Sanjay Kapoor told the Reuters Global Technology Summit in a telephone interview.
"These tariffs are already down to the least in the world, the propensity to drop any further should be limited," he said. "I don't think cost structures of many companies, especially the new start-ups, will justify to bring the price down further from the price that exists in the markets. I mean if somebody wants to bleed... that's different."
Bharti Airtel, which said last week it was the third-largest single-country operator in the world, competes with 10 other firms in an increasingly crowded Indian mobile market. Global players such as Telenor and Etisalat are expected to start services in India this year. Some of Bharti's competitors have reduced tariffs and have given away free minutes to lure new users, but Kapoor said that model can not be sustained.
"Some companies who enter the market will always adopt some tactics," he said, but added customers were always seeking value. "The moment those free minutes are off, they will start shifting preferences," Kapoor said.
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