Essar Announces New Mobile Tariff Plans

Essar Cellphone, the cellular service operator in Rajasthan and Haryana, yesterday announced competitive tariff plans for its two service areas.

The strategy is to get as many people within the subscriber net as possible.

With this move, the free air time that Aircell Digilink, the holding company for Essar Cellphone, offered its consumers in the Haryana and Rajasthan circles is over.

The new plan includes free two-minute usage on incoming calls for subscribers on the post paid card.

After the "toll-free period", the tariff has been fixed at Rs 2 a minute.

The outgoing calls will be billed at Rs 3 for the first minute, subsequently be followed by Rs 2 a minute.

The monthly rentals are pegged at Rs 450 a month. Apart from this, the standard tariff plan is also available.

For pre-paid card users, the outgoing tariff has been fixed at Rs 3 per 30 seconds, while incoming calls will be charged at Rs 3 a minute, irrespective of whether it's a mobile-to-mobile or a mobile to fixed line call.

In Rajasthan, Essar offers services on a monthly rental of Rs 250, while its competitor, Oasis, offers two packages with rentals of Rs 649 and Rs 1,299. However, rival cellular company, Oasis subscribers also need to make a one-time payment of Rs 298 or Rs 1,598, depending on the package, while Essar users have to pay none.

Also, Essar subscribers don't need to pay extra for services like caller identification, call hold and call wait.

Similarly, in Haryana, Essar's rental is about Rs 100 compared with competitor Escotel's cheaper plan, as also is the air-time tariff.

In the other Escotel package, subscribers have to pay Rs 649 a month as rental.

The outgoing charges are about 33 per cent lower in case of Essar.

Mobile-to-mobile calls, however, are costlier in case of Essar's package. Essar recently resumed services after it cleared its licence fees arrears to the government.