robbyji 2 Report post Posted May 31, 2008 New Delhi, May 30 Come June and the country’s largest telecom service provider, the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will start offering the lowest STD rates, between Re 1 and Re1.20 per minute. In fact, for some special plans, the rates would drop to a low of 70-80 paise per minute. The current STD rate is Rs 2.40 per minute. The BSNL rate cut would complete the tariff reduction process started by Bharti Airtel last month and followed up by Vodafone Essar. While Bharti slashed the STD rates to Re 1.50 per minute Vodafone had cut it to Re 1.30 per minute. An advantage of the BSNL scheme is that the new rate would be applicable to landline phones also. According to the plan, STD calls on BSNL’s own network would be at Re 1 per minute while calls on other networks would be at Re 1.20 per minute. Landline STD calls on all networks would be at Re 1.20 per minute because here the system cannot distinguish between the networks. The scheme would be applicable to pre-paid as well as post-paid schemes. Lifetime schemes, however, would attract a tariff of Re 1.50 per minute. BSNL officials said with the new STD rates, to be effective from either June 1 or 5, BSNL tariffs would continue to be the lowest. BSNL has a GSM mobile subscriber base of 36.68 million while its landline user base consists of about 31 million, making it the largest telecom company by gross subscriber base. In the GSM mobile space it ranks third after Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar. The latest round of tariff war started initiated when the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India removed the access deficit charge (ADC) on STD calls from April 1. The Companies were quick to pass on the benefits to the consumers. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kshah 452 Report post Posted May 31, 2008 Good news, Now I think only reliance left. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
srk006 21 Report post Posted May 31, 2008 ^^ Yup!! Waiting for an even better rate from RCOM. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Himanshu Singh 19 Report post Posted May 31, 2008 I think Reliance would not go below Re.1.49.They already have std calling cards with calling rates of Rs.1.5,Rs1.25 and Re1. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted May 31, 2008 ^^^ Thats great of Bsnl my dear friends. Now all BSNL subscribers will enjoy the lowest STD rates. And for Reliance, I hope Reliance should come with the lowest STD rates of 0.99 paise. Regards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Dj 25 Report post Posted May 31, 2008 using std cards, as someone pointed out, u already have the option of calling std at Re.1 long before anyone else did this... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
@ksh@T 20 Report post Posted May 31, 2008 @kamal STD @99p must be a long sight but it cd be for r2r only , as usual the latecomer, i suppose 1.25 to 1.30 , wd be the rate IF they cut Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted May 31, 2008 ^^^ Lets hope for the best and the cheapest from Reliance, my dear friends. Regards. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sougatadc 358 Report post Posted June 1, 2008 Good news, Now I think only reliance left. With all these operators slashing STD rates, TATA is lagging behind. They have some offers like Regional corridors (50p/min against a monthly additional rent of Rs50 within some states regionally) and reduced STD rate of Re1/min against an additional monthly rent of Rs100. But reducing STD rate altogether is required after this spate of rate reduction by other players. TATA's some otherwise attractive plans like 'Business Silver' have STD rate as high as Rs2.65/minute. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KumaarShah 143 Report post Posted June 2, 2008 The CDMA operators started with the promise of the lowest tariffs but now they are lagging way behind in tariff reductions. All other operators have come down, but the big 2 CDMA operators are still sleeping. Hope they get up soon. All offers of free ONNET STD may not cut ice with many customers who have to call other operators also. And RCOM is limiting the offers of offnet calls (like LP 49) to plans which do not have free ONNET STD. It is like one step forward and two steps backwards for RCOM. People who want both LP 49 and LP 99 also cannot activate both these packs. I had my 1000 minutes local ONNET pack and LP 49 activated with great difficulty on 3 of my lines. Still their billing system shows errors and every month I have to ask for waivers and a fight with the CC is inevitable. Then I have to email and get things sorted out. It is painful. Has anyone else activated both the LP 49 and the 1000 minutes local ONNET pack? Are they facing any billing problems? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
