Click to play videoNew Delhi: Telecom operators are on a mission to pack in the customers and delight them.
And as the competition is going up, roaming tariffs are going down.
Reliance Communications, and two state owned companies, BSNL and MTNL, are shaking up the market by charging Re 1 or nothing for calls beyond one's local area.
Telecom Minister Andimuthu Raja has done what consumers want by getting BSNL and MTNL to slash roaming tariffs.
Those who subscribe to a Rs 550 postpaid plan not only get 300 minutes of incoming calls free while roaming, all outgoing roaming calls will be charged at a flat Re 1 per minute.
Close to 20 per cent of revenues for most companies come from roaming charges and telcos are confident that like always the forces of elasticity of demand will be at play.
"Increase in traffic will make up for the hit that we take on account of lower tariffs. We expect roaming revenue to increase quite sharply," said MTNL CMD R S P Sinha.
CDMA big boy Reliance Communication preempted this move by BSNL and MTNL as it was ready with its own scheme.
Rcom in fact offers frequent travellers the option of subscribing to a more expensive Rs 990 scheme and getting 900 minutes of incoming and 400 minutes of outgoing free. For most consumers that's equivalent to zero roaming.
"In this plan, actually we have made incoming roaming calls free altogether for our customers upto a certain number of minutes. Ceiling has been put very generously so that no customer will feel the pinch," said Reliance Communications Personal Business President S P Shukla.
Other operators like Airtel and Hutch will be left with no alternative but to follow suit. That is a competitive imperative.
And so consumers of all telcos will soon have reasons to cheer.
But that leaves us with the big question – who needs to be thanked for this roaming cut?
Former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran declared in an emotional exit conference that he was working on a plan to scrap roaming tariffs. The current Telecom Minister Andimuthu Raja says that its news to him.
"With all fairness I don't think my predecessor did anything to scrap roaming charges," said Communications and IT Minister Andimuthu Raja.
Who cares who gets the credit, it’s the consumer who'll have the last laugh.
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