Media has gone hammer and tongs yesterday and today about BSNL's new tariff plan which makes calls across the country at uniform rates (STD as we call it in India - Subscriber Trunk Dialing).The calls will now cost a measly Rs. 0.8 every 3 minutes. Truly the death of the distance. Compare that with the Bombay - Delhi rate of Rs. 24 per minute way back in 1997 when we were toying with the idea of Rincon. India has one of the lowest telecom tariffs in the world and this is adding fuel to fire. I remember in the good old days we used to have half charge from 7 pm to 8 am and then they added 75% discount between 11 pm and 5 am. I used to make calls post 11 pm then to cousins et al then.And now with such ridiculously priced no one bats an eyelid whether it is day or night. Competition sure has taught a thing or two to these telcos. And customers are enjoying it for sure.
2 comments:
All said and done, I doubt if these rates are affordable to the telcos? If not, at the end the shareholders and pretty much everyone will suffer.
There is a catch I hear. It seems the rate of 80 p for 3 minutes is applicable to only the first 200 minutes and after that normal rates apply. Hence the *Conditions Apply is very much applicable in our country!!
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