Mobile users will pay less for roaming from Friday as leading operators, including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and RCom, slashed their roaming rates by up to 75 percent weeks after regulator TRAI cut ceiling tariffs.
While in roaming, call rates will be cheaper by up to 40 percent and SMS by up to 75 percent.
Country’s largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel said its incoming call rates will be reduced by up to 40 percent, whereas the outgoing inter circle call rates will see a decline of up to 23 percent.
The outgoing local call rates will be reduced by up to 20 percent, Airtel said in a statement. It reduced outgoing local SMS rate by up to 75 percent, while outgoing inter circle SMS rate has been cut by up to 74 percent.
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 percent.
Vodafone in a statement said that outgoing local and STD calls will be charged at 80 paise and Rs 1.15 paise per minute as compared to Re 1 and Rs 1.50, respectively, earlier.
Similarly, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications reduced roaming call rates by 40 percent.
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.
The regulator cut the maximum or ceiling rate that a telecom operator can charge for STD calls on roaming to Rs 1.15 per minute from Rs 1.50 per minute. Similarly, national SMS rate was reduced to 38 paise from Rs 1.50 per SMS.
Also, an operator can charge a maximum 25 paise for each local SMS instead of Re 1 per SMS and a maximum 80 paise per minute for a local call instead of Re 1.
On SMSes charges, Vodafone said that for a local text while on roaming, users will pay 25 paise as compared to Re 1; and for STD texts, 38 paise from Rs 1.50 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 percent, while roaming anywhere in India.
“Outgoing local call rates have been reduced by 20 percent and STD call rates by 23 percent. 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 percent 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 percent 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 percent to Rs 0.80 per minute, while outgoing long distance (inter-circle) voice call will come down by 23 percent to Rs 1.15 per minute.
Incoming voice call while on national roaming will see a cut of 40 percent to Rs 0.45 per minute, it said.
The outgoing local SMSes while on national roaming will be slashed by 75 percent to Rs 0.25 per SMS, whereas outgoing long distance (inter-circle) SMSs will also be cut by 75 percent to Rs 0.38 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.