Close on the heels of Airtel tariff hike announcement, Idea and Vodafone has now increased their prepaid tariffs.
While no formal announcement has been made by either of the operator, we have found that 1 paisa per second calling has been discontinued by both the operators, especially for STD and local calls made to other networks.
Idea Cellular has increased the rates in Delhi, Bihar, Jharkhand, Punjab, Kerala, and Gujarat. In Gujarat circle, the 1.0 paisa per second has been scrapped altogether with all calls now being charged at 1.2 paisa per second and SMS at Rs 1.5 for both STD and local, while at other places only the other network calls and STD is being charged at 1.2 paisa, and local SMS at Re 1 only.
Vodafone, on the other hand, seems to have changed pre-paid rates in 12 of its 22 circles, similar to that of Idea Cellular. In certain circles like UP east and west, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra & Goa, and Kerala STD tariff now stands at 1.5 paisa per second. In rest of the five circles – which include Delhi, Andhra, Chennai, Tamil Nadu — calls to other network and STD will be charged at 1.2 paisa per second.
These charges have not been communicated officially but is listed as the current tariff rates on the operators’ respective websites at the time we checked (some of these rates might have in force even earlier). There can be other plans and special offers to reduce these charges.
As stated in our earlier story, the new operators might not increase the rate to lure subscribers of these operators to their network.