Call for all

Calcutta, Aug. 22: GSM operators are likely to announce a revision of pre-paid rates this week, after adopting a wait-and-watch stance since Reliance Infocomm slashed its tariffs to an all-time low of 99 paise per minute last week.

Industry sources confirmed that GSM service providers will meet on Monday to work out a strategy to combat the price-cut and are likely to offer similar competitive rates to their pre-paid subscribers. While a decision is likely to be taken this week, the extent to which GSM operators are ready to reduce call rates remains to be seen.

Reliance has been striving to expand its pre-paid subscriber base and the rate reduction, which had earlier been introduced in the Chennai and Tamil Nadu circles, was aimed at attracting new acquisitions.

Reliance reduced its pre-paid tariffs from Rs 2.49 per minute to 99 paise for intra-circle calls made to Reliance mobiles and fixed phones. Calls to other GSM and landlines will be charged at Rs 1.79 per minute against Rs 2.49 and Rs 2.99.

Reliance has also done away with the distance slab and all inter-circle calls to Reliance phones will cost Rs 1.79 per minute against Rs 2.99 earlier, while long distance calls to GSM and other phones will cost Rs 2.49 per minute against Rs 2.99 and Rs 3.99 earlier.

On the other hand, GSM pre-paid subscribers pay Rs 2.49 per minute for calls to GSM and WLL mobiles and Rs 2.99 for calls to landlines. A long distance call to a GSM mobile phone costs Rs 2.99 per minute while calls made to landlines cost Rs 2.99, Rs 3.99 and Rs 4.99 for within 200 km, between 200 and 500 km and beyond 500 km, respectively.

Another major benefit announced by Reliance was roaming at home network rates. While a Reliance pre-paid user pays only Rs 1.79 for local calls, GSM users pay Rs 3.75 for calls to mobile phones and Rs 4.25 for calls to fixed phones.

Despite low revenue contributions compared with a post-paid subscriber, the pre-paid base adds to the numbers and hence lends feasibility to operations.

Globally and in India, pre-paid users comprise between 70 and 80 per cent of the subscriber base.

In the case of Reliance, however, pre-paid subscribers form only 35 per cent of the claimed eight-million user base.