RCom does away with STD, roaming charges

Under 'One India One Rate Plans', offers of Rs 599 and Rs 350 for post-paid users and pack of Rs 45 for pre-paid customers

Reliance Communications (RCom), on Monday, announced the launch of One India, One Rate Plans, which allows customers to pay the same rate for local, STD and roaming calls from anywhere in the country.

The plan is applicable for both post-paid and pre-paid GSM subscribers.

The telecom operator has introduced two plans of Rs 599 and Rs 350 for its post-paid users and pack of Rs 45 for its pre-paid customers which will have free incoming calls while roaming and same rate as home network for outgoing calls.

"We are delighted to launch the One India, One Rate Plans in the country, which abolishes differentiated tariffs for roaming, STD and local calls in India. When business has no boundaries, then tariffs should also be seamless and customer-friendly - thus, incoming calls while roaming will now be free on the RCom network," Gurdeep Singh, chief executive officer (consumer business), RCom, said.

"The One India, One Rate Plans will help us attract customers in the high-value Corporate and SME roaming segments. RCom's One India, One Rate Plans will help us break down the tariff barriers and extend unprecedented benefits to our roaming customers," he added.

This is the first time an operator has introduced free roaming packs across all circles and even on calls received from other networks. The Government has long been working on possible framework for free roaming and national mobile number portability.

However, due to different tariff structure both of them are yet to come into reality. On the other hand, the Telecom regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has said free roaming may not be possible immediately, while it has asked operators to work on nationwide mobile number portability within a stipulated timeframe.

RCom said for Rs 599 plan, users will get 1,200 minutes of free outgoing calls (roaming, STD, local), unlimited national incoming roaming free, 2 GB data and 100 SMSes free whereas a flat outgoing rate of 30 paisa/min will be applied for calls after the free minutes are used up.

For Rs 350, the users will get 700 minutes of free outgoing calls (roaming, STD, local), 200 free incoming national roaming minutes, 1 GB data and 100 SMSes free and subsequently a flat rate of 40 paisa/min applies after the free minutes are used up.

The pre-paid users will get free incoming calls while roaming with a pack of Rs 45 with validity of one month and outgoing calls will be charged 40 paisa/min.