Telephone tariff to come down further
By Our Convergence Bureau | 19 Dec 2001
Mumbai: Making an STD or even an ISD call is going to be much cheaper in the coming months. Beginning next month, the mobile-to-mobile long-distance calls within India are going to cost half. And, there are enough indications that the public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), too, will have to cut its rates for national long-distance (NLD) calls.
Cellular operators said they would make mobile-to-mobile NLD calls cheaper by 50 per cent following their tie-up with Bharti Telesonics IndiaOne NLD service. A subscriber will have to pay Rs 12 per minute for an NLD call from 26 January instead of the current rate of Rs 24 during the peak time from 9 am to 9 pm.
Mobile operators have divided the country into three distance zones - Home (50-200 km), Regional (north, south, east, west), and National (inter-region). For home location calls, there will be a flat rate of Rs 2.40 per minute. The peak time rate for regional calls will be Rs 6 per minute.
Mobile operators also expect the mobile-originated long-distance calls market, which stands at Rs 650 crore right now, to double within a year. STD tariffs are expected to dip further if the government allows inter-circle connectivity. With the entry of more NLD operators and Internet telephony, the prices of both NLD and international calls are expected to come down further.
The move to slash NLD rates by half will benefit an estimated 5.2 million cellular subscribers in the country and will make mobile-to-mobile long-distance rates more competitive, even in comparison to the prices paid by fixed-line subscribers.
Long-distance connectivity will be made available in a phased manner in the country. In the first phase, starting January 26, the four metros will be connected, in addition to Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (West), Haryana, Gujarat, Punjab and Maharashtra.
In phase II, by April 2002, it will be extended to UP (East), Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The rest of the country will be covered in Phase III by September 2002.
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