Videocon Telecom slashes outgoing roaming call rates

Videocon Telecom has slashed outgoing roaming call rates by 50 per cent by launching a new voucher. The company's subscribers can now make local outgoing calls at 50 paise per minute and STD calls at 75 paise per minute.

Under the new voucher, priced at Rs45, outgoing local calls while roaming across the country are charged at 50 paise per minute, against the earlier Re1 per minute. STD calls are priced at 75 paise per minute instead of Rs1.50 per minute, while the company is also offering 20 minutes of free incoming calls per day for two weeks, compared with the earlier 75 paise minute.

''Conventionally, benefit of tariff cutters/special tariff vouchers is only given in the home network, and no operator has extended this kind of benefit with 50 per cent straight drop to their customers while roaming, and thus I am pleased to bring this one of its own kind of offering. This is like a true 'Roam like Home' scenario,'' said Arvind Bali, chief executive and director at Videocon Telecom.

''We obviously will be bearing a cost for offering such proposition, but I feel this is an investment in the brand for long term returns,'' Bali added.

On 12 November, Idea Cellular, the country's third biggest mobile operator, had revised 2G and 3G data tariffs to promote mobile broadband in India. The GSM operator now offers 2G data at 2 paise per 10 KB - a 90 per cent reduction across all the 22 circles. The offer will be effective 15 November 2013, and would be available for six months, it said in a statement.

With the same tariff available across all its 10 3G circles, Idea Cellular's 3G users would be able to save up to 30 per cent on their monthly data charges. The Aditya Birla group company has 3G operations across Maharashtra & Goa, Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, Kerala, UP West and East, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

In October, Vodafone India had announced slashing of 2G mobile internet charges – for both pre- and post-paid customers on a 'Pay as you Go' basis – by a massive 80 per cent, effective 1 November.

Previously, Reliance Communications (RCom) had launched an international roaming pack - 'Awesome America' - for its post-paid GSM customers, allowing customers to save 98 per cent on data usage and up to 76 per cent on voice calls while travelling to America.