New Delhi, Jan. 31: AirTel today announced four new tariff plans for its post-paid customers and one plan for its pre-paid customers and has attempted to close the gap between cellular tariffs and those offered by limited mobile service operators like Reliance and Tata.

The new package from AirTel will come into effect from Saturday for new customers while existing customers will be migrated, as per their request. The migration will be completed between February 15-28 based on the customer's request.

The pulse rate will be the standard pulse rate across the industry at 60 seconds. The incoming call charge of 50 paise per minute will be reviewed and dropped after the (Interconnect Usage Charge) comes into force.

Announcing the new tariff plans, Anil Nayar, president (mobility), Bharti Tele-Ventures, said, “We have today taken a lead in introducing attractive and extremely affordable new tariff plans. These plans include special features like free incoming mobile-to-mobile calls and attractive discounts on ISD calls. The new ‘freedom’ plans mean huge savings for our subscribers and further reinforces our promise of delivering the best value in the market.”

The package for pre-paid subscribers will have a startup kit (SUK) including the processing fee of Rs 299, 50 paise for incoming for mobile-to-mobile, limited mobile and basic while the outgoing rate will be Rs. 2.40 per minute and an 20 per cent discount for ISD calls.

All recharge coupons of different denominations will have mobile-to-mobile free incoming calls. All other incoming calls will be charged at nominal rate of 50 paise as in the start-up kit.

Under the plan called AirTel Freedom 349, the company would charge a monthly rental of Rs 349 with outgoing calls costing Rs 1.99 per minute while mobile-to-mobile incoming calls would be free.

In the same plan the incoming calls from other phones like fixed line and WiLL, will be charged Rs 0.50 per minute, which would be taken away after new Trai tariff regime came into effect on April 1. Under the second plan — AirTel Freedom 599 — the customers will pay a monthly rental of Rs 599 with outgoing calls costing just Rs 0.50 per minute with other factors remaining unchanged.