Bharti Airtel kills all national roaming charges to counter Reliance Jio

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel on Monday announced abolition of all national roaming charges for its subscribers- both on voice and data- from April 1.

"Starting April 1, 2017, Airtel customers roaming within India will enjoy free incoming calls/SMS and there will be no premium on outgoing calls," the company explained in a statement. Interestingly, the date coincides with the timeline from which entrant Reliance Jio will finally start charging its customers, even though at sharply discounted rates, for the free services it was offering them so far. ET had reported in the February 27 edition that the company was all set to kill domestic roaming.

Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel said, "This marks the death of national roaming and the whole country will now be like a local network for our customers."

The company has further simplified international roaming for its customers even when they do not buy roaming packs. Beginning April 1, an Airtel subscriber who travels abroad without purchasing an international pack will also get the benefits the moment the subscriber has run a bill equaling the value of the lowest international pack.

For instance, when a customer traveling to the USA without a pack hits the threshold of Rs 649 (the price of the one day pack for USA), he/she will automatically move to the one day pack with free incoming calls/SMS, 100 India and local country outgoing minutes, 300 MB data and a host of other benefits.