Vodafone follows Airtel, Idea with free roaming pack
05 Jul 2013
After Airtel and Idea Cellular, Vodafone has come out with a new roaming pack that would allow users to answer incoming calls in different states in India, free of charge. On the lines of Airtel, Vodafone has also introduced a Rs5 plan for free incoming calls for an entire day.
This Special Tariff Voucher (STV) of Rs5 would be only available for pre-paid customers and would be applicable for only 24 hours. While using the daily plan on national roaming, customers would be able to make outgoing calls for 1.5 paisa per second.
This apart, the network operator has introduced another plan for pre-paid users, which requires them to pay at least Rs71. Unlike the STV above, the plan offers free incoming calls for an entire month. For pre-paid customers, the company has monthly schemes starting at Rs75 to receive calls when outside their home states.
Further, the network operator's Roaming Tariff Plan (RTP) starting at Rs96 for pre-paid connections and at Rs149 for post-paid numbers had also gone live. It needs to be noted, however, that the prices might vary in different states across the country and the basic plan came with a discount on incoming call rates, while the FR plan did not incur incoming charges at all when roaming.
Meanwhile, Idea has also launched two new vouchers for its 123 million plus subscriber base, which offer roaming calling rates at par with home calling rates, without any additional roaming charges.
The company's new value vouchers priced between Rs230-240, as also another priced between Rs35-40, offer the same rates for local, STD, ISD calling, and SMS, as the user pays for using these services while in the home circle. Idea has also reduced incoming roaming charges to 75 paise/minute for users who avail Rs35-40 voucher, whereas incoming would be absolutely free for those who avail Rs230-240 voucher.
Idea users who recharge with the new vouchers would be able to enjoy the roaming benefits for 6 months from the recharge date. The vouchers are now available across all 22 circles from 1 July 2013.