Airtel halves rates for lifetime customers

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel has halved the outgoing local call tariffs for its lifetime pre-paid customers to Re 1 per minute. Going by industry trends, other operators should follow suit.

Earlier this year, all service providers followed Bharti’s move to offer life-time prepaid at Rs 495, compared with Rs 999 earlier, which resulted in a significant lowering of entry barrier for mobile connections.

MTNL, which operates cellular and landline services in Delhi and Mumbai, has also announced a slew of new offerings on Diwali. These include a free Trump Jeevansaathi prepaid mobile connection with lifetime validity for MTNL landline customers, the 1+1 landline scheme for subscribers who use Plan 250 & above, the Garuda FW Super Economy Plan with activation charges of Rs 500 and a monthly rental of Rs 100 and a reduction in the internet tariff for CDMA Delhi customers.

The catch in Bharti Airtel’s new offering is that customers with pre-paid life-time connection will have to pay a pay a one-time fee of Rs 504. “However, customers who took up the life-time offer by paying Rs 999 will be moved to the new tariff plan without having to pay the one-time fee. This is to reward our old lifetime customers,” Bharti Airtel’s president, Mobile Services, Sanjay Kapoor told ET.