Airtel and Vodafone to lower travel tariffs by up to 90%

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One thing overseas travellers from India worry the most about is the drastic jump in their phone bills, thanks to the high tariff rates by mobile service providers.
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However, this summer, leading Indian telcos like Airtel and Vodafone India are willing to provide some relief by offering subsidised international roaming packs, with charges as low as 60 to 90%.

Also read: Falling revenues from voice & data businesses force telcos to look for new sources of income
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The latest overseas roaming packs announced by Airtel, Vodafone and Matrix offer unlimited data use and calling while also letting go off the amount charged on incoming calls.

This shift in the pricing strategy could well be accredited to intense competition which is growing by the day. Even in the calling-card business, the segment leader Matrix had to reduce tariffs by 25% as compared to last year.
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Also read: Telcos to divide users into segments like FMCG companies

"The range of discounts could be almost 90% for a heavy voice and data user in a long duration to a 65-70% for a light user, in a short duration, say a couple of days," Prashant Singhal, telecom leader at global consulting major EY told ET.

This reduction in data tariffs has led to data charges going down to Rs 3 per MB from around Rs 600 per MB across popular roaming destinations.

Earlier, with standard roaming rates, a bill for a week-long trip to the US, with 10 minutes of incoming calls, 10 minutes of local calls, 10 minutes of calls outside the country, and five hours of Internet connectivity per day would have cost a traveller about Rs 1 lakh. However, with new offers, the charges have been substantially reduced to about Rs 10,000.

Also read: Planning to travel on a shoe-string budget? Here are the best international destinations for you
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As per an Airtel spokesperson, they have received welcome response for packs with convenient validity options of one day, 10 days or 30 days.

(Image source Reneedezvous)
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