Telecom Tariff Wars Hit A New Low!
It seems the war for gaining subscriptions is overpowering better sense from prevailing in the telecom space. India is already one of the cheapest markets when it comes to calling rates but that doesn’t mean we can’t hit a new low can it?
Well if the recent initiatives by both new and old operators are to be looked at then its probably is the best time to buy a new sim card and pay in paisa for everything. Dont believe me? Have a look at the spurt of recent offers by telecom operators below:
It all started with tata docomo launching pay per second pulse rates and it kind of set the cat among the pigeons in the telecom space.
What has followed it a rate cut and lower pulse billing across the board:
The domino effect made IDEA, RCom, Vodafone, MTNL and Airtel offer per second billing.
Now if that wasn’t if enough MTS which is a new player cut the 1 paisa per second to half a paise per second! Imagine what if i use just 1 second a month? How do i get half a paise? Is there a half a paisa coin? (Joking 
)
Now if that wasn’t enough Loop Mobile has gone ahead and launched 1 paise per 6 seconds i.e. just 10 paisa a minute charges!
Rcom on the other hand has taken the paisa mania to sms by launching unlimited sms a day in 1 rupee and 1 paisa per sms charges.
Infact the telecom wars have now shifted to CDMA as well with Tata indicom launching 1 paise pulse.
Paisa bolta hai?
Well where is this headed? Free calling? With ads pre and post calls? I mean there has to be some lower end to this free falling rates of phone calls.
Well whatever be the bottom of this free fall the bottom of the pyramid in India is certainly not complaining at this gives them further cheap rates to call and sms. We had written about premium vs rural telecom player opportunity before and these rate cuts are to appeal to the next 500 million telecom users in India. Im still wondering who would talk about better services, free gprs etc rather than just talking about call rates. It seems like telecom services are just a commodity and no matter how much branding they do they would still fight on price.
What is your take on the telecom wars? Where is it headed?
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This is just facilitating an earlier transit away from voice towards data etc. Just that data has to actually prove itself as a good revenue generator.
Prices can still fall down….Thats what Mr. Sunil Mittal recently said…
Looking at the way they are going.. Im tempted to buy a number for outgoing and keep my vodafone sucky number for just incoming.
these rates are going to fall.
i heard that bpl is coming with a plan of 10 seconds in 1 paisa.
@Rajiv I am already using my Airtel postpaid for incoming and local calls which are 200 minutes free per month and I use Reliance for outgoing STD and sms @ 50p/min and 1p/sms respectively.