Customers making frequent long distance calls can now avail the benefits of 47 per cent drop in STD rates, as Bharat Sanchar Nigam's reduced tariff of Rs 4.80 per minute for long distance calls beyond 500 kilometres has been effected from Friday.
Initiating a fresh round of price war, Bharti, offering telecom services under the AirTel brand, on Thursday reduced long distance mobile tariffs by upto Rs 1.75 per minute for ISD and 35 paise for STD calls.
BSNL also reduced monthly rentals from Rs 225 to 180 besides doubling the free calls to 50 calls a month.
Mobile operator Tata Teleservices may have to wait to get an STD license from the government, till a clear picture emerges on the foreign CEO issue, expected in October.
Telecom regulator TRAI on Wednesday initiated a discussion on allowing subscribers of one operator to choose another operator for making long distance (STD and ISD) calls, a move that would feed competition and improve quality of services.
Bharti, which operates AirTel cellular telephone services, announced on Wednesday a 36 per cent reduction in tariffs for cell-to-cell STD calls.\n\n\n\n
In a major announcement for domestic long distance (STD) operators, the government on Friday reduced the performance bank guarantee deposit by 50 per cent to Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million).
Telecom tariffs are likely to fall as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India substantially lowered access deficit charge, a levy paid by private operators to BSNL for rural operations.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is unlikely to participate in the tender floated by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited to carry its STD traffic in Delhi and Mumbai even as the NYSE-listed MTNL has agreed to pay some of the STD dues immediately.
Bharti Airtel, 30 per cent owned by Singapore's SingTel, also announced a drastic cut in roaming rates under which incoming roaming calls will be charged at Re 1 a minute compared with the existing Rs 1.75.
Telecom operator Idea Cellular on Saturday announced a reduction in airtime charges on mobile-to-mobile STD calls.
State-owned telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Thursday said it has slashed its local and STD rates by 50 per cent allowing rural users to make calls at 40 paise per minute.
Anil Ambani Group company Reliance Communications introduced on Thursday a new tariff plan for its post paid subscribers, who can now make STD calls at Rs 1.20 per minute.
State-owned BSNL has rationalised the call charges from its public call office booths under which local and intra-circle calls to any network will be Re 1 per minute for a 60-second pulse, while STD calls will be cheaper by 50 paise.
As per the Trai recommendations, the STD service providers would be connected to ISPs through public internet for the purpose and the two service providers would have mutual agreement for the same. The move will permit calls from personal computers to fixed line and mobile phones. Currently, a voice call can travel between two computers but not from a mobile or a fixed phone.
Pushing the national long distance call traiff further down, cellular operator Hutch has offered its subscribers in Delhi a new STD tariff of 75 paise per minute
Cellular service provider Idea has announced a new STD (standard trunk dialing) tariff of 99 paise a minute for its customers of Delhi and national capital region for calls made to any private GSM mobiles anywhere in the country.\n\n
State-run telecom firm Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd plans to apply for a national long distance licence to the department of telecom shortly, in an effort to bring down its STD call charges
Amid expectations that Thursday levy cut would greatly facilitate reduction in STD, ISD rates
It is a huge reduction for the telecom players as the existing license fee to enter the National Long Distance segment is Rs 100 crore and for International Long Distance is Rs 25 crore.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Thursday announced a 25 per cent cut in ISD rates for calls to the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South East Asian countries, Gulf, Africa and SAARC nations.
A bunch of young teens have fashioned a unique "smart condom" that will glow a different colour if a person has STD.
The new telecom policy draft has paved the way for stoking competition and allowing customers to select their long distance operators by calling for introduction of carrier access code immediately.
Telecom PSU MTNL has paid Rs 314 crore (Rs 3.14 billion) to BSNL, which had demanded Rs 1,062 crore (Rs 10.62 billion) for carrying the former's STD traffic.
The commission sent back the proposal of unrestricted internet telephony, seeking more clarity on how it would function, highly placed source said.
Reliance's much publicised STD call offer of 40 paise a minute to subscribers in its network may not be possible with telecom regulator Trai on Tuesday saying that the company was yet to submit revised tariff package
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In a bid to compete with limited mobile services by basic service providers, cellular companies on Thursday announced a uniform mobile-to-mobile STD rate of Rs 2.99 per minute.
MobileFirst, an alliance formed by the second rung cellular operators in India, is mulling a slash in mobile-to-mobile STD airtime rates, in line with an announcement made by Idea Cellular on Saturday.
A few Muslim girls who wished to appear for their Class 10 board examination wearing hijab were denied entry in Karnataka on Monday citing the recent high court verdict.
As the tenth standard examinations began on Monday, Karnataka ministers said anyone violating the high court ruling on hijab will not be permitted to write the tests.
The Central Board of Secondary Education class 12 sociology paper held on Wednesday asked students to name the party under which the 'anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002' took place, a question the board later said was 'inappropriate' and against its guidelines.
Private cellular operators have asked the telecom regulator to approve the revised tariff packages offering Rs 0.50 per minute STD charges, saying delay in implementation would result in large-scale erosion of customer base.\n\n\n\n
The Maharashtra government's decision came two days after the Centre cancelled the Central Board of Secondary Education Class 12 board exams citing the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.
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