Reliance Comm raises voice call prices by 20 percent

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Reliance Communications , India's third-biggest mobile phone carrier by customers, said on Monday it had increased voice call prices on some of its plans by about a fifth and cut promotional offers and discounts on some others by up to 65 percent.

The move comes as mobile phone companies in India, burdened by heavy debt and facing huge payouts for airwaves, are cutting discounts to customers, effectively increasing call prices.

Easing competition after several smaller carriers either shut down or scaled back operations is also helping the bigger carriers to be aggressive on call prices, which are one of the cheapest in the world. (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Anand Basu)