Airtel Reduces Std, Roaming Charges

[coolrajiv 1]

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile service operator, has reduced local, long-distance and roaming call charges effective from Wednesday.

The telecom operator, which announced an investment of $3.5 billion for strengthening its infrastructure, slashed STD rates to Re.1.50 per minute from the earlier Rs.2.65 a minute for both home area and roaming.

In its roaming tariffs the company also reduced incoming call charges to Re.1 a minute from the current Re.1.75 and outgoing local calls to Re.1 a minute, the company announced here Monday.

“This initiative has been taken to encourage people to make more calls while roaming. This would also immensely benefit our rural customers,” said Manoj Kohli, president and CEO, Bharti Airtel.

Bharti Airtel, in which Southeast Asia's leading telecom firm SingTel owns 30 percent stake, announced a robust 37 percent increase in its fourth quarter profit ending March 2008.

The company recorded 62 million customers by the end of last month.

Indian mobile phone firms added an unprecedented 10.2 million subscribers in March taking the total to 261 million.

[kshah 452]

Seems Airtel is now in aggressive mood and what reliance did in past, airtel may be heading second mobile revolution. Reliance seems to be sleeping giant now a days.

Good move, AIRTEL

[vishalkumar 0]

^^^

Yes, absolutely a great move by Airtel. Do we see all the operators following suite? I wish Reliance comes up with something on this.

[Dj 25]

this begins the second onslaught hopefully

[Honest 836]

Its really a great move by Airtel my dear friends. Hopes that all other operators will also follow the suite soon. And they have to follow for sure, otherwise they will only loose their subscriber base.

Regards.

[Himanshu Singh 19]

my guess is reliance will offer the std calls@1.49!!!! hahaha..

[kshah 452]

my guess is reliance will offer the std calls@1.49!!!! hahaha..

well said.

[vishalkumar 0]

my guess is reliance will offer the std calls@1.49!!!! hahaha..

Yes, they would want to offer better rates than Airtel!! ha ha ha

[sanal 0]

In Airtel, call charges for making STD calls while roaming has been reduced to 1.75 Rs. Per Minute (from 2.40 Rs. Per Minute).

[Greatest 55]

guys a round of fireworks is gonna happen in the boardrooms of the telecom ppl...!!! we r the ones to enjoy the outcomes...

so enjoy calling to the fullest...

cheers!!

[Dj 25]

In Airtel, call charges for making STD calls while roaming has been reduced to 1.75 Rs. Per Minute (from 2.40 Rs. Per Minute).

i read it being mentioned as STD calls at Rs.1.50 both at home and while roaming...

[amitbt22 2]

^^ yes u r right. I ever think why people dont read thoroughly and then post where in this sector merely 1 paisa makes the difference.

[carbinem4 2]

yessssssssssss now reliance has to follow this to stay in the market ..great move Airtel

[Himanshu Singh 19]

I have my doubts about telcos not having their own long distance network like vodafone and idea matching the latest offer by airtel. as of now only bsnl, reliance, tata and airtel have std network. all other telcos have to piggyback one of these telcos for routing their long distance calls. so we might not see vodafone and idea matching this offer.

i will be really surprised if they do match this offer.

Guys I have some news that airtel is going to cut down the local call rate further to as low as 30 paise on its own network and 50 paise to other networks.

also airtel has cut down the std sms rates to 1.5 from 2.00

[kshah 452]

Reliance started greatly by providing home network charges even while roaming, zero roaming rental, R2R long distance charges as roaming incoming and so on, but with short sighted profit booking they too ignored the fact that they can earn more from efficient CDMA and started becoming just another TELCO. Now it seems AIRTEL has realized that reliance is lacking innovation and risk taking ability and they will surely rock the market.

If reliance wants to remain leader, they should encash on CDMA efficiencies and their wast fiber optic network and offer never before prices. They have financial might which no company in India has.

[kesav 127]

Its a very good move by Airtel...............after a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong looooooooooooong time...................

:clap:

I'm really shocked by this sudden pro-customer move by anti-customer organisation.

Hope they're learning from their mistakes.......I want it to be a chain of moves rather than one move once in 5 years.

[@ksh@T 20]

Small telcos cry foul over Bharti's rate cut

NEW DELHI: When the big fish fight, the small fry scramble for cover. The plight of small telecom operators, who were forced into a corner following substantial tariff cuts by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications earlier this week is a case in point.

Five small telecom operators allege that they will have to bear the cost of Bharti’s 40% tariff cut for roaming and STD calls. These telcos, which use Bharti’s national long-distance network (NLD) for routing their STD traffic and pay it a carriage fee for the same, will now have to pay double the amount. Bharti, which was so far charging them about 25 paise a minute for carrying their STD traffic, has more than doubled the rate to 55-60 paise a minute.

While these telcos admit that Bharti Airtel “is legally in the right” to charge a maximum of 65 paise a minute as carriage fee since this is the upper limit set by sector regulator Trai, they also add that the company’s recent move to double the fee was done with to ensure that regional and smaller players “find it impossible” to match the tariff cuts.

ET spoke to six operators, of which five confirmed that Bharti’s decision to hike carriage fees would impact their “ability to get into a price war”. The move to hike carriage fees is also forcing some of the smaller players to roll out their own NLD networks. Says Spice Telecom CEO Naveen Kaul: “It is a fact that Bharti has increased carriage charges considerably. Our response is that it may not impact Spice Telecom as we are in the process of setting up our own NLD network.”

Explained a top executive with another leading GSM telco: “Bharti has so far offered us a heavy discount for carrying our STD traffic on their network. This helped us greatly to drop long-distance tariffs in the past two years. RCOM and BSNL were not offering such discounts, while other players like Tata Communications (VSNL) do not have the same network coverage.

The hike in carriage fees is a severe competitive disadvantage to smaller operators, who were all along using Bharti’s NLD network. Second, by nearly doubling carriage charges from other operators, Bharti has ensured that the revenue impact of the recent tariff cuts it has announced is minimal or even positive.”

substantial tariff cuts by [b]Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications[/b] earlier this week

what was the rate cut by RCOM, free std @ 440/- or what?

[shubhanyu 13]

I would say .... NOT a good move at all. Their infrastructure remains the same, there capacity remains the same; slashing rates would mean more customers, more profit - so the move is STILL anti-consumer, for this move would benefit Airtel more than the customer - he would now 'enjoy' even more call drops and even more network jams.

[raccoon 53]

Speaking of call drops, Airtel is horrible here in Poona - you can expect a call drop as often as every 2 minutes sometimes! Voice clarity is BAD quite often too! I only use it to make 10 p calls and SMS to my friends on Airtel... otherwise, I wouldnt touch it with a bargepole!

[nkmenon55 1]

my guess is reliance will offer the std calls@1.49!!!! hahaha..

dear.....

reliance will not offer std rs.1.49 in this month. The r com authorities to keep the tarriff on std in a steady manner. If u have any doubt in this issue kindly call the custormer care of the reliance.

yours nkmenon 55 from calicut

Edited May 2, 2008 by Honest
<< Pic Removed >>

[manishag 17]

Speaking of call drops, Airtel is horrible here in Poona - you can expect a call drop as often as every 2 minutes sometimes! Voice clarity is BAD quite often too! I only use it to make 10 p calls and SMS to my friends on Airtel... otherwise, I wouldnt touch it with a bargepole!

even in delhi situation is worst. they claim best network but netork is worst you can see the call drop in every 4-5 minutes if you are driving on city roads. even on Ring Road call drops a lot. Bharti is the worst service provider I have ever seen

[raccoon 53]

Well, I was just reffering to the problems when stationary. When moving in a car, its even worse!

Congestion is also v severe, in the evenings, etc...

Thats for voice calls... on the other hand for SMSing, Airtel rocks!

And I'v never had that issue of vanishing/depleting balance with Airtel... or Idea for that matter. These pros, along with the 10p Airtel to Airtel calling (in Happy hrs), 50p to other mobiles & Re. 1 STD, on STV of Rs 90 on my Friendz card, still makes me keep my Airtel as a secondary connection.

And now it seems the friendz tariff is valid even for Bombay circle - I am able to call and SMS Bombay mobiles for 10 paise/min!!!

Unfortunately, a lot of people I know are on Airtel, so it saves me lotta money...

Airtel really needs to do something about its network... else I woudln't consider it a working service... no matter what the tariffs... low tariffs dont help if you cant talk for 2 mins without having a call drop and frequently bad voice clarity...

If Idea can have such a good network, there is no reason why Airtel cant do the same!

[sougatadc 358]

Speaking of call drops, Airtel is horrible here in Poona - you can expect a call drop as often as every 2 minutes sometimes! Voice clarity is BAD quite often too! I only use it to make 10 p calls and SMS to my friends on Airtel... otherwise, I wouldnt touch it with a bargepole!

even in delhi situation is worst. they claim best network but netork is worst you can see the call drop in every 4-5 minutes if you are driving on city roads. even on Ring Road call drops a lot. Bharti is the worst service provider I have ever seen

If this be the situation in places like Poona or Delhi, AirTel must try to improve their service.

[vishalkumar 0]

^^^

Yes, I think rather than reducing the call rates, they should first improve their network and CC service. That will be the best move that they can do.

[chiradip 0]

AirTel has reduced their STD rates to Rs 1.50/min for all customers. Reliance still charges Rs 2.65/min for the same feature (only thing that they have introduced a STV for Rs 98 which gives R>R @ Rs 0.33/min R>others @ Rs 0.49/min all STD @ Rs 0.99/min, though they have not announced on the web site). When they are reduce the STD charges for normal customers?

Edited May 5, 2008 by chiradip