RIM triggers cuts in cellular tariffs

Going mobile will now be cheaper. All major cellular operators in the state have brought down their prepaid and postpaid tariffs after Reliance Infocomm cut its prepaid tariffs by around 60 per cent earlier this month.

Under the new tariff structure, which was announced on August 13, local and intra-circle calls from RIM prepaid to any Reliance India Mobile (prepaid and post paid) and Reliance India Phone (FWP/FWT) has been reduced to 99 paise per minute from Rs 2.49 per minute.

Charges for calls to other GSM mobiles and landlines have been reduced to Rs 1.79 per minute from Rs 2.49-Rs 2.99 per minute.

All inter-circle calls from RIM prepaid to any RIM or FWP/FWT anywhere in the country now will cost Rs1.79 per minute, down from Rs 2.99 and to other GSM operators and landline, it will cost Rs 2.49 per minute, down from Rs 2.99-3.99 per minute.

Hutch soon followed suit, reducing tariffs in both the prepaid and postpaid segments. On August 26, Hutch introduced a 'flat rate' tariff structure for all Hutch and Orange prepaid users. The new Hutch tariffs allow prepaid users to make local calls to any mobile phone at 99 paise per minute and STD calls to any phone in the country at Rs 2.25 per minute.

Hutch prepaid users can avail of the new tariffs by sending an SMS. Users opting for the new tariff will be charged a monthly fee of Rs 25 for each subscription.

Hutch users not opting for this promotion will anyway pay a lower rate of Rs 2.25 for all locals calls, compared to the existing rate of Rs 2.49 for all calls to mobile and Rs 2.99 for all calls to non-mobile phones.

Hutch has also launched schemes for its postpaid customers. It has launched the mobile to mobile offer of 99 paise per minute with a monthly rental of Rs 25. In addition, Hutch also offers 2,000 free Hutch to Hutch SMS facility for a monthly fee of Rs 25 and has slashed STD rate to Rs 1.75 on mobile to mobile for a monthly charge of Rs 25.

In addition, it also offers a free airtime of Rs 1,500 for migrating from prepaid to postpaid, which can be availed over a period of one year.

Hutch is the leading cellular service provider in Gujarat with over 1.05 million subscribers. Fascel Limited provides cellular services in Gujarat under the brand name Hutch. Hutchison Essar has licenses for 13 circles and has a combined subscriber base of over 5.8 million cellular subscribers.

On August 27, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd too announced a downward revision in its cellular service rates for both the prepaid as well as postpaid services.

While it reduced the prepaid tariff to 90 paise per minute, down 60 per cent for mobile to mobile calls, it also cut the tariffs from mobiles to fixed phones by half. BSNL has also effected a 33-42 per cent reduction in postpaid tariffs.

Airtel Gujarat too has revised its pre-paid tariffs, introducing a charge of Re 1 per minute for all Airtel to Airtel calls. For all calls to other GSM, CDMA or fixed phones, the per minute tariff will be Rs 2.25 per minute. Similarly, for all Airtel to Airtel STD calls, the tariff will be Rs 2 per minute, while it will be Rs 3.25 per minute for all other operators.

Idea Cellular Ltd too has announced a revision of tariffs, in both prepaid and post paid segments. For example, in the Buzz 375 plan, the per minute tariff has been reduced to 99 paise per minute.

Similarly, in the prepaid segment, the tariff has been made more flexible, where customers pay Rs 1.99 per minute for the first two minutes and Rs 1.75 per minute for calls beyond two minutes.

Jagrut Vyas, chief operating officer of Tata Teleservices Gujarat, said that almost all GSM operators have reduced their tariffs on the prepaid segment. Tata Teleservices is yet to launch the prepaid services in the state.

"We recently announced tariffs for the postpaid segment that are very competitive," he said. Tata Teleservices offers CDMA cellular, fixed wireless and fixed wireline phone services in Gujarat.