Aiming better profitability, Reliance Communications (RCom) has once again announced an increase of more than 20 per cent in mobile phone tariffs. It is the second round of tariff increases within six months.

RCom yesterday announced its decision to hike the price on special vouchers, while leaving the headline tariffs intact. For example, the company's tariff plan STV 46, which used to offer 200 minutes of free calls within the company's network, will now offer only 140 minutes.

Around 40 per cent of the telecommunications giant's pre-paid users purchase special vouchers with freebies and discounts.

Gurdeep Singh, chief executive officer (wireless) at RCom, turned down any possibility of any decline in customer demand or an alteration in usage patterns.

Speaking on the topic, Singh added, "With smaller operators shutting or scaling down operations. this would help pricing power move back to serious, long-term and pan-India operators and positively impact profitability."

In October last year, RCom had hiked headline tariffs by 25 per cent, from 1.2 paise per second to 1.5 paise per second. Headline tariffs can be described as base tariffs that are paid by normal customers who don't use vouchers with discounted rates.

In the after-hours trading, RCom shares gained 2.3 per cent to close at Rs 112.7 apiece on the Bombay Stock Exchange.