Telecom firms cut mobile call rates

● Airtel, Vodafone, RCom and other service providers have announced similar rate cut in roaming charges.

● SMSes get 75 per cent cheaper, while local calls will cost 20 per cent less.

Following an order from telecom regulator Trai, telecom operators on Thursday announced a cut in mobile call rates, while roaming charges were slashing by steep 40 per cent and SMS by 75 per cent from May 1.

“Vodafone customers will now pay less for both local and STD calls on national roaming. On roaming, for all outgoing local calls, a ceiling of 80 paise per minute has been fixed from the earlier `1 per minute, and for STD calls it is `1.15 a minute from earlier `1.5 per minute,” said Vodafone in a statement.

It said that for incoming calls on roaming, a ceiling of 45 paise a minute has been fixed from the earlier 75 paise per minute.

Vodafone Customers will now pay up to 75 per cent less for texts while on roaming. For a local text, it is 25 paise compared to Rs 1 before and for STD texts, 38 paise from `1.50 earlier, in accordance with the Trai guidelines.

Airtel, RCom and other service providers also announced similar rate cut in roaming charges.

Operators also announced special roaming tariff plan to its pre-paid and post-paid subscribers. In Special Roaming Tariff Plan, incoming voice calls while on national roaming shall be free, on payment of fixed charge, if any.