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Essar Telecom hikes call tariffs, hopes to turn profitable [IntelliNews - Weekly Reports](IntelliNews - Weekly Reports Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Essar Telecom hikes call tariffs, hopes to turn profitableKenyan mobile telecoms operator Essar Telecom, majority owned by India's Essar Group, has raised its call tariffs by 20% as part of its plan to become profitable by 2014, Business Daily reported. Essar, which operates under the brand yuMobile, has become the third mobile operator to boost tariffs after the country's dominant cellphone operator Safaricom and Indian-owned Airtel, following a costly price war that gripped the country's mobile telephony market in 2010. Safaricom, which was the first to increase tariffs in October 2011, said last month the price hike helped it boost its net profit for the six months to September 30, 2012 by 94% y/y to KES 7.8bn (EUR 68.3mn). Essar Telecom is the smallest Kenyan mobile operator by subscriber number with a market share of 9% and the third largest by voice traffic with a share of 9.1%. It expects to turn profitable by 2014, driven by an increase in customer base that should bring economy of scales to its network utilisation and strengthen the focus on the value-added services. (c) 2012 Emerging Markets Direct Media Holdings LLC Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |