|
Saturday November 28, 02:02 AM
|
Source: Indian Express Finance
|
RComm launches 1p SMS plan; tariff war to intensify
By fe Bureaus
Reliance Communications (RCOM.NS : 169.2 +1.05
) on Friday introduced 1 paisa per SMS plan, taking the tariff war to the data front from voice calls. It unveiled two add-on SMS plans as a tool to attract new set of GSM customers in the country. With this, the company has announced a tariff battle on the SMS front, which was untouched so far.
"With voice subscribers enjoying tariffs at the rate of 1 paisa per minute, we wanted to appeal to those subscribers, who consider SMS as the primary mode of communication. These plans would revitalise and invigorate usage of SMS that has been ignored by the telecom industry so far," said Mahesh Prasad, president, wireless, RComm.
Prasad added that he sees the tariff war as irrational and expects it to remain at current levels. He however, did not rule out the possibility of further cuts in tariffs and said, "We do not comment on speculations".
The company has redefined rates at 1 paisa per SMS for a monthly plan of Rs 11 both for pre-paid and post-paid subscribers. The second plan is an unlimited usage per day plan, where a per-paid subscriber will pay Re 1 daily and a post-paid subscriber will pay Rs 25 per month for unlimited SMSes per day. These plans are technology & circle agnostic and have a fair usage cap of 15,000 per month in a bid to avoid commercial usage. SMS rates in the country are now 50 paise for local usage, Re 1 for national usage and Rs 1.50 for roaming usage.
Stocks of RComm on the Bombay Stock Exchange (^BSESN : 16025.83 -16.35
) closed at Rs 166.90, down 1.18%, and at Rs 166.60, marginally down by 0.89%, on the National Stock Exchange (^NSEI : 4777.95 -14.7).
The lower SMS tariffs are aimed at garnering more users in addition to retain the existing ones ahead of mobile number portability, which sets in on December 31, and new telecom operators launching services shortly. It may be recalled that Bharti Airtel (BHARTIARTL.BO : 317 +3.2) on Thursday said it did not plan to reduce charges for SMS in near future.
