New Airtel offer: 50 paise for STD calls

As competition gets hotter in the Indian mobile services market, Bharti Airtel has announced a new 'Airtel Advantage' plan that offers both local and long-distance calls at just 50 paise per minute.

''The Airtel customer community of over 110 million enjoys the special and exclusive benefits of being on the largest network of over 100,000 towers and availability across 1.5 million outlets making it the most compelling service to be on,'' said Atul Bindal, president, mobile services, while launching the new scheme in New Delhi today.

An Airtel subscriber can access the Airtel Advantage offer by purchasing the Airtel Advantage Plan from any Airtel retail outlet.

Indian mobile telephony operators can offer cheaper tariffs within their own network as they do not have to pay interconnection charges, which apply if a call is made to another operator's network.

India is world's fastest-growing mobile market, with operators adding more than 10 million mobile users a month, and competition has led to drop in tariffs as an ever-increasing new entrants try to win subscribers.

In fact many observers believe the Indian market is getting overcrowded and chaotic. With government regulation being ad hoc and highly volatile on specifics, a consolidation is bound to among occur between the numerous companies that have managed to grab radio spectrum.