Reliance slashes roaming rates by 70 per cent

Reliance Communications (RCOM)on Tuesday announced 70 per cent reduction of roaming rates for its mobile subscribers.

The new rates, the lowest in the industry so far, are likely to ignite a major tariff fight among mobile phone operators in India.

Anil Ambani's RCOM had abolished rental charges on roaming and also reduced its roaming rates by 44 per cent in February following a directive from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

"Now, we have taken a step further by reducing roaming rates to as low as 40 paise per minute on selected plans. This should add real value to those customers, who have a need for travelling across the nation," said SP Shukla, President (personal business), RCOM.

Reducing roaming tariffs has become one of the top priorities for the mobile firms, especially after the announcement by former communications and IT minister Dayanidhi Maran that he would have abolished roaming charges on June 3.

His successor Andimuthu Raja last week said he would look into the matter.