Telco shares zoom as a possible floor price might avoid another tariff war

Telecom companies' shares on Wednesday zoomed as much as 11 per cent buoyed by the proposal before regulator Trai regarding fixing a minimum price for mobile internet tariff. Vodafone Idea shares spurted 11.21 per cent to trade at Rs 7.84 apiece in early deals on the BSE. On the NSE, the stock soared 11.35 per cent to Rs 7.85 per unit.

Bharti Airtel also saw its shares rising though marginally at 0.23 per cent to trade at Rs 460 a unit on the BSE.

The telco's shares on the NSE were trading at Rs 459.35 apiece, up 0.05 per cent.

Shares of Reliance Industries, the parent firm of unlisted RJio Infocomm, lost 0.92 per cent to Rs 1,564.35 on the BSE.

On the NSE, its scrip went down 0.94 per cent to Rs 1,564.10.

Telecom operators have proposed sector regulator Trai to fix a minimum price for mobile internet as no company on its own is in a position to decide on it due to fierce competition in the market, industry body COAI said on Tuesday.

"All the current telecom service providers in the private sector, namely Bharti Airtel Limited, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea limited are in complete agreement that Trai be requested to regulate tariffs by setting floor price for data services," COAI Director General Rajan S Mathews said in the letter dated December 3, 2019.

However, private telecom operators want call rates to continue to remain unregulated.