Bharti to charge 50 paisa/min for local, STD calls <http://in.biz.yahoo.com/090918/137/bau7nw.html> Click to enlarge photo<http://in.biz.yahoo.com/090918/137/bau7nw.html>
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Leading mobile firm Bharti Airtel (BHARTIARTL.BO<http://in.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=BHARTIARTL.BO>: 442.6 +9.45) on Friday said it would charge 50 paisa per minute (1 U.S. cent) for local and national calls on its network, heating up competition in a market that already has some of the world's cheapest tariffs. Local call rates in India now average U.S. 2 cents per minute, and national long-distance calls are priced at about U.S. 3 cents, with variations depending on bill plans and operators. Bharti Airtel, whose 110 million users account for nearly a quarter of India's mobile subscribers, said more than 95 percent of its users made local and national calls to another number on its network. Operators can offer cheaper tariffs within their own network as they do not have to pay interconnection charges which apply if a call is made to another operator's network. India is world's fastest-growing mobile market with operators adding more than 10 million mobile users a month, and competition has led to drop in tariffs as new entrants try to win subscribers. Second-ranked Reliance Communications (RCOM.NS<http://in.finance.yahoo.com/q?s=RCOM.NS>: 306.35 -6.3) expanded its GSM services this year and offered free call minutes for some months to lure subscribers, leading to record sign-ups. Sixth-ranked Tata Teleservices recently launched a GSM-based mobile service with a per-second billing plan that helped it post its highest-ever monthly additions in July. (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by John Mair) (For more news on Reuters Money click http://www.reutersmoney.in) --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalspeculators?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
