The Hindu Business Line : Airtel pre-paid tariffs slashed by 60 pc

THE battle for the pre-paid mobile market heated up today with Bharti Cellular announcing up to 60 per cent reduction in its tariffs. The move follows a similar tariff cut by Reliance Infocomm last week.

As per the new tariffs, local call rates from Airtel pre-paid to any other Airtel mobile have been slashed to Re 1 per minute from Rs 2.49 a minute. STD calls to other Airtel mobile will now cost Rs 2 per minute, a reduction of more than 30 per cent from Rs 2.99 a minute. This makes it cheaper to make STD calls from a mobile phone than from a fixed line phone. The tariffs announced today also reduces the differential between post-paids and pre-paids.

The rates for local calls to fixed line and to any other mobile phone have been reduced by up to 25 per cent to Rs 2.25 a minute. Airtel has also introduced a simplified uniform rate for STD calls to any fixed line phone in the country. A call made to any fixed line phone would now be charged at Rs 3.25 per minute, irrespective of the distance. This is good news for consumers making calls above 200 km at Rs 4.99 a minute till now, but those who make long distance calls between 50-200 km will have to pay more as they currently pay only Rs 2.99 a minute.

Despite the reduction by Airtel, the tariff offered by Reliance Infocomm is still marginally lower. STD calls on Reliance cost only Rs 2.49 a minute compared with Rs 3.25 on Airtel pre-paid. Similarly, local calls on Reliance cost between 99 paise and Rs 1.79 a minute compared with Re 1 and Rs 2.25 a minute on Airtel.

Announcing the new tariffs, Mr Manoj Kohli, President (Mobility), Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, said: "Airtel has once again taken the lead in introducing tariffs which are simple, innovative and provide the best value to our customers."

The new tariff would be made available to even the existing customers on payment of one-time entry fee of Rs 50. As a special introductory offer, this charge is being waived off for new customers up to September 30.

The new tariffs would be rolled out between August 25 and August 26 across all circles.

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