India's leading telecom service provider, Bharti Airtel has increased the voice calling prices in the country in order to cope with the increased costs.

Bharti Airtel said in a statement on Wednesday that increase in prices is in line with the increased costs. "We have been reiterating that increase in prices is inevitable, which is reflected from the fact that despite rising costs, tariffs have been falling over the past 12 quarters," the statement said.

Telecoms service providers in India have been struggling with low margins and high level of competition as call rates in the country are among the cheapest in the world. The high level of competition with multiple telecom companies has made it difficult for them to improve profitability. Telecom firms had earlier indicated that the high costs of spectrum will force them to increase tariffs as they look to transfer higher costs to the customers.

Voice calls still account for about 85 percent of the total revenues of the sector in the country and increasing tariffs will help the company improve earnings and cope with the increase costs including that for acquiring spectrum. Stiff competition in the sector had purchased prices down in 2009 and tariffs have remained low since that time.

Other telecoms including Vodafone are set to announce price rises soon.