Airtel postpaid rates in Delhi to go up by 12% from December

Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telecom operator, has announced a 12 per cent increase in monthly postpaid charges for select plans in Delhi NCR region, effective 3 December.

"Effective Dec 3, 2014, bill plan rental for your Airtel mobile will be revised from Rs199 per month to Rs224 per month," Airtel said in a message to its customers.

Airtel is reported to have increased rates across low rental plans.

This is the second hike in telecom services rates by the company in three months. In September, the company had increased mobile internet rates by up to 33 per cent and reduced benefit under plans for its pre-paid customers.

Telecom service providers increase rates more frequently than earlier taking advantage of the decrease in the number of players in the market following cancellation of mobile licences by the Supreme Court in the 2G spectrum case.

Airtel says the revision in monthly rental rates is only marginal and for only a limited number of postpaid plans in Delhi-NCR, while the benefits remain unchanged.

Airtel has a mobile subscriber base of over 200 million across the country, which include both prepaid and postpaid users.

Bharti Airtel had, last week, reported a consolidated net profit of Rs1,383 crore for the September quarter, a nearly three-fold jump from the previous-year quarter.