Now mobile users have reasons to cheer as they will have to pay less for roaming with effect from Thursday as leading operators, such as Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and RCom, have slashed their roaming rates by up to 75 per cent, about three weeks after regulator Trai cut ceiling tariffs. While in roaming, call rates will be cheaper by up to 40 per cent and SMSes 75 per cent.
Telecom regulator Trai on April 9 had reduced ceiling tariffs for national roaming calls and SMSes and mandated service providers to offer a special roaming tariff plan. These changes are coming into effect from May 1. Country’s largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel said its incoming call rates will be reduced by up to 40 per cent, whereas the outgoing inter circle call rates will see a decline of up to 23 per cent.
The outgoing local call rates will be reduced by up to 20 per cent, Airtel said in a statement. It reduced outgoing local SMS rate by up to 75 per cent, while outgoing inter circle SMS rate has been cut by up to 74 per cent. Second largest operator Vodafone said customers will pay 45 paise/minute instead of the earlier 75 paise/minute for receiving calls outside home network, a cut of 40 per cent.
Vodafone in a statement said that outgoing local and STD calls will be charged at 80 paise and Rs1.15 paise per minute as compared to Rs1 and Rs1.50, respectively, earlier. Similarly, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications reduced roaming call rates by 40 per cent. The regulator cut the maximum or ceiling rate that a telecom operator can charge for STD calls on roaming to Rs1.15 per minute from Rs1.50 per minute. Similarly, national SMS rate was reduced to 38 paise from Rs1.50 per SMS.
Also, an operator can charge a maximum 25 paise for each local SMS instead of Rs1 per SMS and a maximum 80 paise per minute for a local call instead of Rs1. On SMSes charges, Vodafone said that for a local text while on roaming, users will pay 25 paise as compared to Rs1; and for STD texts, 38 paise from Rs1.50 earlier in accordance with TRAI guidelines.
Besides, the operator has introduced special roaming tariff plans for its prepaid and postpaid customers. Idea Cellular said as per the revised tariffs, it will now offer incoming calls at 45 paise/minute, a reduction of 40 per cent, while roaming anywhere in India. “Outgoing local call rates have been reduced by 20 per cent and STD call rates by 23 per cent. local SMS will now be available for just 25 paise and STD SMS for just 38 paise, on roaming nationally,” Idea said.
RCom said customers will now have to pay 40 per cent lower tariffs for incoming calls while roaming. On outgoing calls made while roaming anywhere in the country, both local and STD, the new charges are up to 23 per cent lower, RCom said. “Also, with RCom’s One India, One Rate plan, customers can enjoy three benefits in one plan, with incoming calls while roaming being free, and a single attractive outgoing unified rate while in home network or roaming network—for both local and STD calls, valid for a period of 28 days,” it said.
Videocon Telecom in a statement said that in line with the Trai’s Telecom Tariff (60 Amendment) Order, it has also slashed the National Roaming rates. It slashed outgoing local voice call on national roaming by 20 per cent to Rs 0.80 per minute, while outgoing long distance (inter-circle) voice call will come down by 23 per cent to Rs1.15 per minute.
Incoming voice call while on national roaming will see a cut of 40 per cent to Rs0.45 per minute, it said. The outgoing local SMSes while on national roaming will be slashed by 75 per cent to Rs0.25 per SMS, whereas outgoing long distance (inter-circle) SMSs will also be cut by 75 per cent to Rs0.38 per SMS, it added. “These revised tariff will be effective May 1, 2015 as per the Trai’s guidelines,” it said. The firm continues to offer free incoming calls while roaming on Videocon Telecom Network by default for all its subscribers, it added.