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NT Bureau
Chennai, May 23:

        Reliance Communications, a part of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group, has slashed roaming tariff by nearly 70 per cent for its cell phone subscribers.

        In the post-paid segment, all roaming calls would have a tariff of Re one per minute under the India One plan. In the prepaid, roaming rate was reduced to 40 paise per minute for all on-net (Reliance to Reliance) calls. Tariff for all incoming calls was also reduced to 40 paise for a minute from Rs 1.75 to Re one per minute.

        Now, prepaid RCVs (recharge vouchers) for roaming customers with full talk time would be available at Rs 520 in which all calls would be metered at Rs 1.20 per minute. Another RCV at Rs 770 offered local calls at 80 paise for a minute and inter-circle calls at Rs 1.20 per minute. 'Already Reliance customers have the advantages of pan-India network for roaming calls and a multilingual call centre which enabled subscribers to speak in their mother tongue, wherever they travel across the country. Anytime, anywhere recharge of vouchers at over three lakh outlets for roaming customers is possible. Moreover, subscribers could access data connectivity and mobile internet while roaming at home tariffs,' said S P Shukla, president, Personal Business, Reliance Communications.

        Speaking at a press conference here yesterday, he recalled within a week after the launch of Classic handsets in May at varying price-points, one million units were sold. Reliance Communications also introduced a feature-rich colour handset at Rs 1,234 and a life-time RCV at Rs 499, a flexible coupon which offered 15 years of validity with full talk time on all subsequent recharges.

        'Reliance handsets have become roaming friendly after slashing tariff by 70 per cent. Now, incoming calls while roaming would be charged at 40 paise, Re one or Rs 1.20 per minute depending on the specific plan. Likewise, outgoing calls in roaming would be charged at 40 paise, Re one or Rs 1.20 per minute depending on plan chosen,' Shukla explained.

        The monochrome handsets that were introduced recently would attract entry-level users to expand the company's mobile market, besides offering a chance for existing customers to upgrade the handsets with new features, he said. There were nearly 16 TV channels beamed through Reliance handsets.

        With a subscriber base of over 30 million, Reliance would pass on the benefits of economy of scale by lowering tariffs for the end-users of its telecom services, he said. The company has set up a pan-India, next generation digital network for voice, data and video solutions across the entire chain of infocomm spectrum.