Triggering another possible price war in the telecom sector, Reliance Communications on Monday announced new tariff plans that offer a single price for all calls across the country, even while roaming. Under these plans, the operator has made incoming calls free while roaming.

Called One India One Rate Plans, there will be no difference between local, STD and roaming charges. This is the first time an operator was waived incoming roaming tariffs across all networks.

Other players have tariff schemes that offer free incoming while roaming only when the call is from the same network. In RCom’s case, there will be no roaming charge even if the call is received from other operators’ networks.

Revenue implications This could have revenue implications for the company in the short run because operators pay interconnection charges when calls originate on another player’s network.

But company sources said that the growth in outgoing roaming calls would offset the revenue impact, if any. “Currently, users either stop making calls while roaming or buy a local SIM. We expect users to shift to RCom network to avail themselves of this new offering,” said an company executive. Earlier, the Government had tried to make it mandatory for all operators to offer free incoming roaming.

But the TRAI said that this was not feasible as it would impact long distance telephony operators. TRAI had, however, permitted operators to offer special tariff vouchers offering free roaming.

Two plans RCom has launched two post-paid tariff scheme offering 1,200 minutes for ₹599 a month and 700 minutes for ₹350. Subscribers can make all types of calls with these tariff plans. For pre-paid users, RCom has launched recharge coupons from ₹45 onwards offering all incoming calls free and outgoing calls at 40 paise a minute even while roaming.

“When business has no boundaries, then tariffs should also be seamless and customer-friendly—thus, incoming calls while roaming will now be free on the RCom network,” Gurdeep Singh, Chief Executive Officer, Consumer Business, Reliance Communications Ltd, said.

High-value subscribers RCom is hoping to attract the high value GSM subscribers onto its network with these schemes. Some of the rival player said that they would follow suit if the RCom plan finds traction in the market but a few players said that this was desperate move by RCom to stay relevant in a market dominated by Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW