New Delhi: Just when finance minister P. Chidambaram is talking about a price cut in the industry to boost demand and growth, many leading mobile phone handset manufacturers have started sending out letters to their dealers hiking prices. Telecom is one of those sectors not impacted much by the global economic slowdown.

At the dealer level, the mobile handset prices have been increased by at least 4 to 5 per cent. A retail buyer would pay around 8 to 9 per cent more (towards taxes) on top of the dealer price.

DNA had reported in September that mobile phones are likely to get more expensive in the Indian market. The weakening rupee is impacting the price of mobile handsets, as most of these are imported.

President of the Indian Cellular Association Pankaj Mohindroo has maintained that a price hike is expected for mobile handsets.

While leading handset manufacturer Nokia is learnt to have issued the increased dealer prices for around 10 models, others are in the process of doing the same.

While 90 per cent of the handsets being sold in the Indian market are branded, the remaining 10 per cent are coming from the parallel market. In 2007 calendar year, 90 million handsets were sold in India.

Even as the telecom sector is dong well despite the slowdown, phone manufacturers have introduced low-cost mobile models, keeping in mind rural India which is largely untapped.

India has over 300 million mobile subscribers, and is adding an average of 8 million to 9 million every month. But the rural teledensity is still in single digit.

Source : DNA