Airtel removes national roaming charges

new delhi — Bharti Airtel on Monday announced removal of all roaming charges for outgoing and incoming calls as well as SMSes and data usage within India as it takes on competition from new comer Reliance Jio.

India’s largest mobile phone service provider also said international call rates will be cut by up to 90 per cent to as low as Rs3 per minute and data charges by up to 99 per cent to Rs3 per MB across popular roaming destinations.

In a press statement, the company said the move will lead to “death of national roaming” from April 1. Also, it said, there will be no bill shocks while roaming overseas — daily billing will be automatically adjusted to the price of basic one day pack even for customers who don’t buy a roaming pack.

“With this, Airtel mobile customers will be able to carry their numbers across India and the world and stay connected all the time without having to worry about high call/data charges,” it said.

There will be no additional data charges on national roaming. Home data packs for customers will apply even while they roam across India.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel said: “This marks the death of national roaming and the whole country will now be like a local network for our customers, who will not have to think twice before making or receiving calls or using data while travelling outside their home base. Airtel has again set the benchmark in delivering best in class value backed by a great network experience.”

For international roaming, Airtel said it has already launched innovative and affordable International Roaming packs for all major countries across the world.

These packs come with convenient validity options of 1 day, 10 days, and 30 days. — PTI