- News>
- ICE Economy
Reliance Infocomm not for roaming charges
Mumbai, May 09: Cellular major Reliance Infocomm Ltd will not levy roaming charges for both incoming and outgoing calls in India, in sharp contrast to that of existing GSM players, making the company`s cellular services cheaper by over 50 per cent than an average GSM player.
Mumbai, May 09: Cellular major Reliance Infocomm Ltd
will not levy roaming charges for both incoming and outgoing
calls in India, in sharp contrast to that of existing GSM
players, making the company's cellular services cheaper by
over 50 per cent than an average GSM player.
"We will continue to offer home tariff rates to customers who travel out of their registered location, even as the stress would be to offer a single rate across the country," Reliance Infocomm president (wireless products and services) S P Shukla said here today.
The company does not incur any additional operational overheads, even while a customer is travelling, as the call would originate and terminate on its nation-wide network, he said, adding, "So we have decided not to levy roaming rates".
"We stick to our philosophy of providing affordable mobile services to masses and now will offer affordable roaming service," Shukla said. All GSM players in the country had hiked roaming rates by Rs 1.50 on May 1, citing an end to the existing promotional offer, which was launched around five months ago.
Not levying roaming charges means Reliance would be only charging call forwarding rates and customers would have to pay only Rs 1.49 per minute (under plan Rs 149) for mobile-to-mobile outgoing calls while away from home turf, he said.
This is in contrast to the GSM customer, who would be paying a minimum of Rs 1.99 (under plan Rs 149) per minute (under entry level scheme) and an additional Rs 1.50 per minute as roaming charges while the subscriber is away from home. This would translate into a minimum of Rs 3.49 per minute for an outgoing call on a GSM network, as against Rs 1.49 billed on a Reliance network, Shukla said adding, on a GSM network the user pays more than 50 per cent than that on a CDMA network.
However, on a comparative basis, the CDMA user is still the gainer than a GSM subscriber as the rates would rise proportionally, he claimed.
Similar is the case for incoming calls, as a GSM user would be shelling out a minimum of Rs 2.99 per minute per call plus Rs 1.50 (roaming charges) under 299 plan, amounting to Rs 4.59 or Rs 5.49 depending on the distance between the home turf and visiting location.
On contrary, Reliance Infocomm would levy only call forwarding for incoming calls while travelling outside the circle, making it cheaper by more than 50 per cent than that of a GSM player. The incoming call rates would further increase depending on the distance between home turf and areas of visit, which means a subscriber would have "shell out" more as the distance varies, he said.
In international roaming, for call forwarding from India, the company would charge Rs 15.99 per minute per call, while outgoing calls would be charged based on the tariff of the operator in that country, he said.
Bureau Report
"We will continue to offer home tariff rates to customers who travel out of their registered location, even as the stress would be to offer a single rate across the country," Reliance Infocomm president (wireless products and services) S P Shukla said here today.
The company does not incur any additional operational overheads, even while a customer is travelling, as the call would originate and terminate on its nation-wide network, he said, adding, "So we have decided not to levy roaming rates".
"We stick to our philosophy of providing affordable mobile services to masses and now will offer affordable roaming service," Shukla said. All GSM players in the country had hiked roaming rates by Rs 1.50 on May 1, citing an end to the existing promotional offer, which was launched around five months ago.
Not levying roaming charges means Reliance would be only charging call forwarding rates and customers would have to pay only Rs 1.49 per minute (under plan Rs 149) for mobile-to-mobile outgoing calls while away from home turf, he said.
This is in contrast to the GSM customer, who would be paying a minimum of Rs 1.99 (under plan Rs 149) per minute (under entry level scheme) and an additional Rs 1.50 per minute as roaming charges while the subscriber is away from home. This would translate into a minimum of Rs 3.49 per minute for an outgoing call on a GSM network, as against Rs 1.49 billed on a Reliance network, Shukla said adding, on a GSM network the user pays more than 50 per cent than that on a CDMA network.
However, on a comparative basis, the CDMA user is still the gainer than a GSM subscriber as the rates would rise proportionally, he claimed.
Similar is the case for incoming calls, as a GSM user would be shelling out a minimum of Rs 2.99 per minute per call plus Rs 1.50 (roaming charges) under 299 plan, amounting to Rs 4.59 or Rs 5.49 depending on the distance between the home turf and visiting location.
On contrary, Reliance Infocomm would levy only call forwarding for incoming calls while travelling outside the circle, making it cheaper by more than 50 per cent than that of a GSM player. The incoming call rates would further increase depending on the distance between home turf and areas of visit, which means a subscriber would have "shell out" more as the distance varies, he said.
In international roaming, for call forwarding from India, the company would charge Rs 15.99 per minute per call, while outgoing calls would be charged based on the tariff of the operator in that country, he said.
Bureau Report