The Hindu : Tariff plans simplified for cellphone users

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 16, 2003

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National

Tariff plans simplified for cellphone users

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI MAY 15. The country's two largest cellular operators today announced new tariff plans that are marked by simplicity to enable consumers evaluate their packages with ease.

The initiative was taken by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), which has become the second largest cellular company with 28 lakh customers. It announced a new tariff plan with a monthly rental of Rs. 525 and a 15-second pulse.

The cell-to-cell (local) charges will be 40 paise a minute while the cost for cell to fixed calls has been fixed at Rs. 1.20. The benefit of the 15-second pulse will be that if a consumer talks for less than a minute, a fraction of the cost will be charged. The STD cell-to-cell rate under the plan is a flat Rs. 1.80 a minute while cell-to-fixed STD rate will vary between Rs. 1.80 and Rs. 3.60, depending on the distance. SMS has been made extremely attractive by reducing it from Re. 1 to 60 paise a message.

At a news conference, the BSNL CMD, Prithipal Singh, said plans were being made simple for the consumers. Reductions have also been made in the existing Plan 225, Plan 325 and Prepaid. The reduction in tariff ranges between 8-66 per cent for Plan 225 and Plan 325. In the pre-paid category, the reduction in tariffs is between 8-50 per cent.

The BSNL expects revenue to increase by 25 per cent from the cuts. Apart from some buoyancy, it will also be the beneficiary of being paid interconnect user charges (IUC) for incoming calls from other networks.

The BSNL rates would be effective from May 17 but the leader in the cellular services sector, Bharti Telecom, has stolen a march by announcing a new plan which takes effect from tomorrow. Bharti has 4.2 lakh customers more than BSNL. Being present in most large cities, most customers belong to the high user category.

The company has introduced a new "Airtel 0 1 2" plan whose rental is Rs. 399. Apart from Rs. 100 as free airtime, cell-to-cell calls will cost Re. 1 a minute, cell-to-cell STD calls Rs. 1.99 a minute (including airtime) and cell-to-fixed STD is between Rs. 2.99 and Rs. 4.80 depending on the distance.

Bharti has retained the pulse at 60 seconds and kept the SMS rate at Rs. 1.50 making it slightly costlier than BSNL.

On May 8, Bharti had announced new rates for its existing packages in which clutter was removed by new composite tariffs so that the customer was better placed to evaluate the offerings. In the `349' plan the local cell-to-cell and cell-to-fixed rates are Rs. 1.75 a minute and Rs. 1.99 a minute respectively. In `599', the two rates are 50 paise and Rs. 1.20, in `999' the rates are 50 paise and 75 paise and 40 paise and 60 paise for `1699' plan. STD rates for all the plans are the same. Cell to cell STD is between Rs. 1.99 and Rs. 2.99 and cell to landline STD is Rs. 3.99.

For prepaid (Magic), cell-to-cell is Rs. 2.40 and cell-to-landline Rs. 2.80. STD rates vary between Rs. 2.99 and Rs. 3.99 a minute.

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