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Money > Reuters > Report August 13, 2002 | 2011 IST |
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Bharti launches new cellular tariff plansIndian mobile operator Bharti Cellular Ltd on Tuesday announced two new tariff plans and offered free incoming calls in the national capital as part of a slew of measures to grab market share in the competitive cellular market. New Delhi is the biggest cellular phone market in India with a subscriber base that surged to 1.2 million (12 lakh) users in June. The move by Bharti Cellular, a fully owned subsidiary of Bharti Tele-Ventures, came after Hutchison Essar, a unit of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, announced similar plans last month. Both companies have already cut mobile rates in Delhi. New Delhi-based Bharti said in a statement that subscribers in the capital would not have to pay for incoming calls from the company's more than 1.8 million (18 lakh) subscribers across the country. The firm, which has a presence in 15 of the 22 cellular zones into which India's telecom sector is divided, also announced free roaming facilities for customers in Delhi from its subscribers across India. One of the new tariff plans allows customers to make free incoming and outgoing calls for a fixed monthly rate of Rs 2,195. Under the second plan, subscribers who pay a total monthly bill of Rs 1,495 will get incoming calls free of charge and pay an outgoing rate of 0.50 paise for a 30-second call. The new plans will become effective from August 16. The country's telecom regulator said earlier on Tuesday it would announce a new tariff structure to be followed by mobile phone companies by the end of September. The Bharti group is one of only three integrated telecoms service providers in India. Bharti Tele-Ventures, a key holding company of Bharti Enterprises, provides mobile, fixed-line, domestic long-distance and international phone service. India's $5.0-billion (Rs 24300 crore) mobile phone sector, seen as one of the fastest-growing markets globally in this decade, has some 7.69 million (76.9 lakh) users. This number is expected to surge at a compounded annual rate of 46 per cent in the next five years. ALSO READ:
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