Bharti Airtel announced a new roaming scheme for its Delhi prepaid circle. The new plan allows users free roaming calls for 30 days in five states - Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal (except Kolkata) - on a recharge of ₹21.
In another announcement, Airtel also launched its mobile HD voice service for customers in Africa.
Delhi Airtel customers are currently charged ₹1 for incoming calls and local outgoing locals and ₹1.5 on STD outgoing calls, while roaming.
The move comes at a time when the government has decided to waive off the roaming charges nationally from October.
The free roaming facility which was due to start in March was severely criticised among Telecom operators as it would lead to large losses on their part.
It has been said that operators garner about 10 percent revenue from roaming charges and the free roaming move is seen as a great setback for all operators.
In January, Aircel had announced a similar "One Nation One Rate' scheme to attract its customers and gain additional profits. The plan offered free incoming calls and '1 paise per second' plan for its outgoing local and STD calls, and even SMS. The plan was differently priced in different circles.
Even BSNL offers a roaming plan for ₹199 which allows free incoming calls for a validity of six months.
