MTNL Increases Voice Tariff

Mobile subscribers of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) will have to pay more as the company has increased its tariffs for several of its prepaid and postpaid plans. The new rates are applicable from July 1, 2012.

The hike, again, indicates that the days of cheaper voice plans are all but over and there will be no further reduction in the voice plans. Voice is set to become costly. Recently, Idea Cellular Ltd. and Vodafone India had also raised their voice tariffs by 30 and 20 percent respectively.

The 3G segment in India, on the other hand, is expected to see a fierce tariff war in the the next few years. Reacting to the slow uptake of 3G services, operators have already announced massive price cuts in their 3G data offerings.

Coming back to MTNL, the operator has discontinued the promotional offer under which the tariff was charged on per-minute basis. In the prepaid segment, it has increased the call rates from 20p/minute to 30p/minute in 3G Jadoo (Pay Per Minute plan).

In postpaid, tariffs have gone up by 10 paisa per minute for Super Value, Super Freedom and Plan C customers. Super Value and Super Freedom customers will now pay 30 paisa per minute (up from existing 20 paisa per minute) to make a call on the company's own network (MTNL-MTNL). There is also a 10-paisa-per-minute increase for Super Freedom and Plan C customers to call on other networks.

Local SMS rates have also gone up from INR 0.25/SMS to INR 0.50/SMS on all postpaid and prepaid plans. These will be applicable after six months for both existing and new customers.

The cash-strapped operator also took a decision to close its monthly INR-185 postpaid plan from this month. Existing subscribers will have the option to migrate to other postpaid plans.

Jatinder Singh, Principal Correspondent, Light Reading India