Airtel and Vodafone Idea launched new tariffs on December 1, and Jio will roll out new tariffs on Friday Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio, three of the largest telecom operators in India, have increased their mobile tariffs this month.

The higher tariffs come at a time when the country's telecom industry is struggling against record losses, intense competition and huge payment of dues to the government.

Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel posted their highest quarterly losses last month, on account of provisions made for the payment of adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-related dues to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) following a Supreme Court ruling.

In separate statements on December 1, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel said new plans will be available across the country starting Tuesday.Reliance Jio announced revised tariff plans for its mobile customers on the same day.Reliance Jio said its "all-in-one" plans will come into effect from December 6.

The new plans will be priced up to 40 per cent higher and will include more benefits for the customers, it added.The tariff hikes will enable the telecom companies to protect their profitability after huge provisions for settling their AGR dues with the DoT hurt their balance sheets, say analysts.Vodafone Idea had reported a quarterly loss of Rs 50,922 crore for the quarter ended September 30. Bharti Airtel's loss had come in at Rs 23,044.9 crore for the same quarter.In a major ruling in October, the Supreme Court rejected telecom companies' appeal against the government's definition of AGR, allowing the telecom department to recover dues worth Rs 1.33 lakh crore from Airtel, Vodafone Idea and RCom.The verdict came as a huge relief for the telecom department and as a big setback for the telecom operators reeling under heavy debt.Reliance Jio Infocomm - the telecom arm of Reliance Industries - however reported a net profit of Rs 990 crore for the second quarter of 2019-20. The DoT and the mobile carriers have been at odds over the definition of AGR.

The companies argue that AGR should comprise just revenue accrued from core services, while the DoT says AGR should include all revenue.Telecom providers in the country pay the telecom department nearly 3-5 per cent of their adjusted gross revenue in usage charges for spectrum or airwaves and 8 per cent of AGR as licence fees.