Indian telecom service providers are fighting for their survival in the voice market with Reliance GSM and Aircel emerging as the low cost operators.
TelecomLead.com is analyzing the latest tariff trends in India.
The state-run MTNL offers its users a tariff plan of Rs 89 which allows user to make outgoing calls at 90p / min and outgoing STD calls at 1.40p / min.
The other tariff plan is for Rs 101 that offers local and STD mobile calls at 1p / sec and landline calls at 2p / sec. With a tariff plan of Rs 311, users can make outgoing calls at 90p/min and STD calls at 1.40p / min.
A tariff plan of Rs 198 allows users to make unlimited local MTNL calls and other local and STD at 70p / min.
Idea Cellular, the third largest telecom operator in India after Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, has a tariff plan of Rs 49 that is valid for 180 days and users can make all local, STD and roaming calls at 1.2p / min. The tariff plan for Rs 64 with a validity of 9 days offers 115 local plus STD minutes.
The Rs 108 tariff plan offers 215 local plus STD minutes with 28 days validity whereas the Rs 251 tariff plan provides safe custody for 365 days.
Reliance GSM, a part of the Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance ADAG group, on the other hand offers low priced tariff plans such as Rs 36 tariff plan that allows user to make all STD calls at 40p / min and is valid for 30 days.
The Rs 43 tariff plan allows user to make 1st 100 local voice calls at 10p / min, post which all local voice calls @ 35p / min and the Rs 62 tariff plan makes local voice calls at 35p / min and STD calls at 40p / min, both offers have 30 days validity.
Aircel, a joint venture of Malaysia’s Maxis, allows its subscribers to make Aircel-to-Aircel STD calls at 10p / min and Aircel-to-others at 40p / min with a tariff plan of Rs 39. The offer has a validity of 28 days.
With a tariff plan of Rs 128 users get 280 L/N minutes and for Rs 501 they get 1200 L/N minutes. Both offers are valid for 28 days from activation.
Bharti Airtel, the Sunil Mittal promoted telecom operator, offers its customers a tariff plan of Rs 48 that allows to make local mobile calls at 40p / min and is valid for 28 days. The tariff plan of Rs 67 allows users to make local as well as STD mobile calls at 40p / min.
With a tariff plan of Rs 99 all STD calls can be made at 40p / min for 12 weeks and the Rs 297 tariff plan will provide 3000 minutes of local Airtel calls.
The state-run BSNL offers its users a tariff plan of Rs 15 which allows them to make local as well as STD calls at 1.2 p / min. For BSNL to BSNL calls, the call rate is 1p / min.
Users can make calls for free to BSNL mobiles by paying Rs 210. While for calling other mobiles the call rate is 0.45p / min. The validity of the plan is 30 days.
On a recharge of Rs 410, the users can make calls local and STD BSNL calls for free, while calling on other mobiles will cost 0.45 p / min for both local and STD.
Users have to pay Rs 500 to make free local and STD calls on BSNL mobiles. The call rate for local calls on other mobiles is 0.30p / min and STD calls for 0.45p / min. The validity of the offer is 90 days.
All these major telecom operators offers their users a variety of plans but Reliance GSM and Aircel provides low call rates tariff plan at a low cost whereas other operators offer the similar plans for a higher cost.
Following Reliance GSM and Aircel is Airtel Bharti, which also offers its subscribers a low priced tariff plan. MTNL and BSNL on the other hand have costlier tariff plans compared to other leading telecom operators.
Considering the validities of these tariff plans Idea cellular and Airtel Bharti are offering validity for up to 90-180 days, while the other operators only offer validity for maximum of 60 days. Most tariff plans from Reliance GSM provide 30 days of validity.
Note: We did not include Uninor, MTS, Videocon, etc. because they have marginal presence
