Most people in Sri Lanka allege that AirTel has not lived up to the expectations of the people.So some of them doubt whether they have formed a cartel.Cartel means a secret collusion between competitors to reduce the competition.Airtel has announced that they will charge 2 rupees outgoing fee per minute though most of us anticipated much lower charges.They haven't made any difference between airtel-airtel calls and peak and offpeak calls which is a basic strategy used by any company in the world.If there is no cartel we can come to a conclusion that Airtel has used "market skimming"pricing strategy which means charging a premium price early due to the unexpected higher demand.
But the allegation that they have formed a cartel cannot be taken for granted.Had Airtel charged lower prices the reaction from Dialog,Tigo,Hutch and Mobitel would have been much severe.It would have caused the whole industry to perish after incurring heavy losses.So WHO KNOWS whether they all have got together to protect the industry by forming a cartel.
But the allegation that they have formed a cartel cannot be taken for granted.Had Airtel charged lower prices the reaction from Dialog,Tigo,Hutch and Mobitel would have been much severe.It would have caused the whole industry to perish after incurring heavy losses.So WHO KNOWS whether they all have got together to protect the industry by forming a cartel.
