vvinayakpai 26 Report post Posted September 18, 2009 (edited) India's Bharti to charge 1 cent/min for calls Fri Sep 18, 2009 6:32am NEW DELHI, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Leading Indian mobile firm Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO) on Friday said it would charge 50 paisa per minute (1 U.S. cent) for local and national calls on its network, heating up competition in a market that already has some of the world's cheapest tariffs. Local call rates in India now average U.S. 2 cents per minute, and national long-distance calls are priced at about U.S. 3 cents, with variations depending on bill plans and operators. Bharti Airtel, whose 110 million users account for nearly a quarter of India's mobile subscribers, said more than 95 percent of its users made local and national calls to another number on its network. Operators can offer cheaper tariffs within their own network as they do not have to pay interconnection charges which apply if a call is made to another operator's network. India is world's fastest-growing mobile market with operators adding more than 10 million mobile users a month, and competition has led to drop in tariffs as new entrants try to win subscribers. Second-ranked Reliance Communications (RLCM.BO) expanded its GSM services this year and offered free call minutes for some months to lure subscribers, leading to record sign-ups. Sixth-ranked Tata Teleservices recently launched a GSM-based mobile service with a per-second billing plan that helped it post its highest-ever monthly additions in July. (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by John Mair) SOURCE1: http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSDEL44812720090918 Source2:http://telecomtalk.info/bharti-airtel-offers-airtel-advantage-local-std-50pmin/9682/ Edited September 18, 2009 by vvinayakpai Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Greatest 55 Report post Posted September 18, 2009 ..nice... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aviator 3 Report post Posted September 18, 2009 Is it regional or across india? Saw add on TV....It said something about regional....... Similar to corridor packs by tata indicom Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pasumark 51 Report post Posted September 18, 2009 Has anyone got full details? Is it for pre-paid or post-paid? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lostjournal 7 Report post Posted September 18, 2009 Customer care is unaware. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vvinayakpai 26 Report post Posted September 19, 2009 They have put up hoarding all around the place, but the exact details have not been mentioned. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vvinayakpai 26 Report post Posted September 20, 2009 (edited) Got some more information regarding the offer from Bharti Airtel. The above plan gets activated on a recharge of Rs. 77 which offers a talktime of Rs. 10 and tariff validity of 3 months. Local and STD calls to Airtel will b charged at 50ps/min. All local and STD calls to other networks would be charged at 60ps/min. (not sure whether landlines are included) there was something regarding sms also bundled also, but i was not able to pick up the whole information from the hoarding. Click on the link below to get region wise details of the plan. http://telecomtalk.info/airtel-advantage-pack-details/9818/ Edited September 20, 2009 by vvinayakpai Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vvinayakpai 26 Report post Posted September 21, 2009 (edited) A very good scheme from Airtel. Frankly speaking I didnt expect them to succumb to pressure so soon. I had expected that action could be expected only after MNP is implememnted, or at least when the exact date of implementationn of MNP is notified. Waiting for RCOM CDMA to counter this offer!!!!!!!!!!!!! Edited September 21, 2009 by vvinayakpai Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SUDYEcaZ 67 Report post Posted September 21, 2009 A very good scheme from Airtel. Frankly speaking I didnt expect them to succumb to pressure so soon. I had expected that action could be expected only after MNP is implememnted, or at least when the exact date of implementationn of MNP is notified. Waiting for RCOM CDMA to counter this offer!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wats good in this scheme?? In mumbai n maharashtra same is available wt recharge or Rs 50 RCOM STV 39 is much better...all STD at Rs 0.50 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vvinayakpai 26 Report post Posted September 21, 2009 (edited) ^^^^^^^^^ In Mumbai and Maharashtra the scheme is available for Rs. 50, agreed. But the validity is 30days. Whereas in Karnataka Rs. 77 voucher comes with talktime of Rs. 10 and tariff validity of 90 days. Also with Rs. 77 in Karnataka, offnet STD calls to mobiles and landlines are charged at only 60ps/min. RCOM's Rs. 39 voucher is valid for 30days. And also, the first minute of every STD call is charged at base tariff plan i.e Rs. 1.5. The scheme by Airtel is w/o any first min calculations. Edited September 21, 2009 by vvinayakpai Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pasumark 51 Report post Posted September 21, 2009 (edited) The major dis-advantage of this plan is calls to other local mobiles will be 60p to Re.1, which I feel is somewhat higher. Airtel is very clever in extracting money. This scheme is very useful for people who call Airtel and use STD a lot. But those who call local mobiles will at dis-advantage. Edited September 21, 2009 by pasumark Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
