Telecom tariff war enters new frontiers as RCOM cuts charges to 1 paise/SMS
28 Nov 2009
Reliance Communications (RCOM) has triggered off an SMS tariff war, on Friday by slashing SMS charges to 1 paise per message.
RCOM subscribers, both GSM and CDMA users as well as prepaid and postpaid customers, can now send message at 1 paise per SMS on buying a Rs11 monthly voucher, or by opting for an unlimited SMS plan by paying Re1 a day, Mahesh Prasad, RCOM president, said at a press meet yesterday.
The move, which takes the tariff war to a new level, is expected to drag other operators like Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, Tatas and MTNL and BSNL into the tariff war by responding immediately with similar offers.
It is to be recalled that the tariff war based on paise was initiated by Tata DoCoMo with the launch of their 1 paise per second billing in September this year. Later on it extended this facility to roaming too.
Early last month, Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group firm RCOM had slashed roaming tariffs to Rs50 paise per minute, forcing other telcos to offer similar plans (See: Reliance Communications offers STD, local calls at uniform 50 paise a minute).
Bharti Airtel, the country's largest service provider, reduced roaming charges to 60-80 paise per minute.