Idea and Bharti on low battery!

Both telecom stocks, Idea and Bharti, figure amongst the top losers on the BSE since opening bell. In fact Idea Cellular is the top losers, going down almost 5% to Rs.94.60. Bharti Airtel went down 4.5% to Rs.469.35.

Reliance Jio has once again unleashed a price war, much to the delight of the mobile users and to the disdain of companies. Jio stated yesterday that it has plans to give to more data on its existing plans, which means tariffs will come down once again, for the second time in a month.

Starting 26th Jan, Jio increased the validity on a Rs.98 package from 14 days to 28 days and data comes 25 to 33% cheaper. The cost per GB has come down by 20-29%. This change in tariff came after Bharti announced a reduction; post 26th Jan, Jio will remain the “cheapest” in India.

Idea is to announce its Q3FY18 performance today and the overall estimation is that there will be a widening of its net loss and fall in revenue on account of cut in interconnection usage charges (IUC) cut by TRAI and sharp fall in realisations.