MOBILE FAN 42 Report post Posted August 24, 2009 Source Bangalore: With the government approving prepaid calling cards for STD and ISD, the users will have the benefit of cheapest call rates for national and international long-distance calls regardless who ever the mobile operator is. The Department of Telecom (DoT) has allowed all long-distance license holders in the country to market their products directly to consumers in the form of prepaid packages or through calling cards, which will bring down international call rates by half. The companies will also be allowed to sell the product online. For instance, a Vodafone Essar subscriber can purchase a package from Verizon, which offers the cheapest ISD tariff. The user can feed a set of numbers specified in the package to get onto the Verizon network and make the calls. The same apply for STD calls also. There are 25 long distance licence holders in the country, which include PowerGrid, RailTel, Gail, Sify, AT&T, British Telecom, Cable & Wireless, SingTel, Verizon, France Telecom (Orange) and Tulip Telecom. Tata Communications (formerly VSNL) and BSNL have welcomed the move, describing that it will reduce ISD rates dramatically while STD rates may not be impacted much as they are already highly competitive. "Customers will finally have a choice of long-distance providers. I expect ISD rates to come down significantly due to true competition," said Srinivas Addepallim, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy, Tata Communications. Tata Communications has said to offer ISD tariffs at 50 percent of the existing rates to several international destinations if calling cards were allowed. Long distance tariffs have fallen 20-53 percent globally after customers were allowed to choose their operator. As the ISD contributes only three percent of the revenues, it will not impact the companies. The service providers generate around 10-20 percent of the total income service providers' revenues and ISD accounts mere 15 percent. "We are exploring and examining all opportunities that would come in its way due to this regulation change," said Atul Bindal, President, Bharti Airtel, which is India's largest long-distance provider in terms of revenues. Calling cards is a multi-billion-dollar business, as the country specific cards are very popular in markets like the U.S. In fact, many Indian companies sell calling cards to NRIs settled in the U.S. and elsewhere. Indian foreign carriers feel a little about the DoT move. "The government should have taken this step a few years ago and it would have made huge difference to the consumer. The impact will be marginal now," said SN Zindal, Director General, Association of Competitive Telecom Operators (ACTO), which represents foreign carriers such as AT&T, BT, Cable & Wireless, France Telecom (Orange) and Verizon in India. "Calls rates to leading countries like the U.S. are competitive, but it can bring down tariffs to some of the other countries," added Zindal. The call rates to Europe, Australia and Gulf countries may go down with this move. "Calls to the U.S. are priced at about Rs 5 per minute by most operators, but calls to Australia cost about Rs 10 per minute. The distance from India to the U.S. and Australia is almost the same. The big change will be that rates to a lot of countries, especially Europe and the Persian Gulf will become very competitive," commented V Sridar, Research Fellow, Sasken Communication Technologies. Telecoms regulator TRAI had recommended this offer of long distance calling cards in August 2008. The DoT took a year to clear the TRAI proposal. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vishalmcp 8 Report post Posted August 24, 2009 good news for consumers, lets wait for the calling cards. hope this will get launch soon.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Greatest 55 Report post Posted August 25, 2009 Great News... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MOBILE FAN 42 Report post Posted November 27, 2010 Its end of November and there is no signs of such calling cards Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KanagaDeepan 1,084 Report post Posted November 27, 2010 The thread was started on Aug2009 and now it is NOV2010... So NO HOPE, imho... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vishalmcp 8 Report post Posted November 30, 2010 as usual with Indian Governments cant expect anything from them on time...... may have to wait one more year.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
m.khurana 17 Report post Posted November 30, 2010 maybe we can expect it by Nov 2012..!! Same thing happened with MNP Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csmart 472 Report post Posted November 30, 2010 mtnl already started.. calling from landline to six countries varies from Rs 0.80 to Rs 1.25.. these are US, Singapore, HongKong or thailand (not sure), Dubai.. its good move... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csmart 472 Report post Posted November 30, 2010 mtnl reduced price.. see the attached file... though limited time offer.. promo_isd.pdf Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
m.khurana 17 Report post Posted November 30, 2010 MTNL is offering only to few countries... MTNL has worst services Sometimes I am being charged @6rs pminute and sometimes 1re Pminute for calling to US.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
