New Delhi, Nov. 22: In the latest twist to the ongoing tariff war in mobile phones, Tata DoCoMo today extended its per-second billing offer to roaming calls.

Subscribers of Tata DoCoMo will have to pay just one paisa per second for making a call while roaming. Incoming calls while roaming will also be charged on a per-second basis.

The move not only counters Bharti Airtel’s decision to reduce roaming rates by 60 per cent but also opens up a new frontier in the tariff war.

At present, all the other operators charge roaming calls on a per-minute basis. While these rates are higher than the tariffs for local calls, they also vary depending on whether one is making a call within the same operator’s network or on another’s.

The offer from Tata DoCoMo will be uniform, irrespective of the location or the destination of the call.

The Tata DoCoMo offer will also be available without any upfront cost to the user and will be applicable across all its tariff plans.

Bharti’s recently launched Airtel Turbo for roaming is available only on a single plan for which users have to pay an upfront fee of Rs 98. The plan charges 60 paise a minute for all incoming calls and between 60 paise and 80 paise a minute for outgoing calls.

“We are delighted to announce yet another industry-defying offer to our subscribers — a transparent and pack-free roaming tariff plan of 1 paisa per second for all incoming and outgoing calls, both local and long distance, to all networks and types of phones (mobile or landline). Tata DoCoMo subscribers will need no special packs or pay any hidden charge to get this offer,” said Deepak Gulati, president of Tata DoCoMo.

The company is gearing up for a pan-India rollout of GSM services this year, and the new roaming scheme will be available across the country.

At present, the Tata GSM service is available in 15 circles.

“When a subscriber is roaming, most telecom operators in India charge a minimum of 50-60 paise per minute, even when the call duration is less than a minute. Under the Tata DoCoMo roaming offer, subscribers will be charged only for what he or she uses — at 1 paisa per second. For instance, a 15-second call made or received while roaming will elicit a charge of 15 paise only — not up to Re 1 on a per minute basis, as is the industry norm,” Gulati said.

Tata DoCoMo was the first to introduce per-second billing on local calls.

The move ensured that the company got the highest number of new users in the last three months. The new roaming rates are expected to trigger the next wave of a tariff battle in the mobile segment.