International telecom services provider Matrix Cellular today said it has slashed call rates from the UK to India to Re 1 per minute, in a bid to attract 40 per cent of the traffic of Indians travelling to Britain.
“Around 5-5.5 lakh people from India travel to the UK annually. We have slashed call rates to capture 40 per cent of these travellers annually. They will be able to make calls at effective rate of Re 1 per minute,” the Matrix CEO, Mr Arun Batra, said.
The company, which sells connections to travellers that remain valid only during their stay abroad, has set a target to sell around nine lakh connections next fiscal, he added.
Mr Batra said that under the new schemes for the tourists going to the UK, Matrix in partnership with T-Mobile will offer Indian travellers 500 minutes free for Rs 500.
“The total pack will cost Rs 700. This will include 500 minutes of free calls to India. Thereafter, normal tariff will apply,” Mr Batra said.
He added that Matrix has already slashed down the data usage charges by 1/10th of the international rates.
“During normal international roaming, a customer has to pay around Rs 750 per MB, but we are offering access to the Web for customers travelling to the US and the UK at Rs 75 per MB,” Mr Batra said.
He said that Matrix Cellular customers using BlackBerry can have unlimited access to emails, browsing, BBM (Blackberry messenger), Facebook and Twitter in over 150 countries for 50 pounds.