Yapping becomes cheaper

Telecom Minister A. Raja wants to bring down average call rates to around 25 paise a minute, but telecom operators are not waiting for a diktat from the ministry to offer discounts, though rates and schemes vary from circle to circle. Look at the following:

• Tata Indicom has launched regional STD plans whereby postpaid users can avail of regional STD calls at 50 paise a minute;
  
  
• Airtel has slashed local call rates to 50 paise per minute on some of its post-paid plans;
  
  
• Vodafone is offering discounts to post-paid subscribers of up to 50 per cent of usage; and
  
  
• Reliance Communications is offering post-paid users cut-price STD rates

All these discounts are targeted at post-paid users. After running behind pre-paid users for years to boost subscriber numbers and gain spectrum, telcos are now concentrating on retaining post-paid users who generate, on average, twice the revenues of pre-paid users. With number portability on the way (soon, we are told), these consumers might be the first to jump ship.

— Kushan Mitra