Idea Cellular offers STD and Local calls at 50 paise

IDEA cellular new offering is that of Local, STD calls and SMS at 50 paise to any mobile phones or landline network in India. To avail this offer, new pre-paid subscribers can avail the offer on any recharge voucher while the existing subscribers can recharge for a special tariff at Rs. 47 valid for 5 months.



This offer is immediately available at all mobile retail stores in India.

However, the refurbished rates will be applied from the second call. The first local and STD calls of the day and the first Local and STD SMS will be charged as per their regular tariff.

BSNL Mahrashtra Goa customers elated

India’s renouned telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) had made its Mahrashtra Goa pre-paid customers elated with another exciting tariff plan by launching 5 new “MAHA MAGIC” plans. BSNL “Magic” tariff plans for its prepaid mobile customers with lower Local and STD calls on the basis of a daily rental, dubbed “Maha Magic plans”. BSNL launched a total of 5 “Maha Magic Plans” with different tariff structures.




“MAHA MAGIC 1″ – Local calls @ 50 p/min to BSNL network Under this scheme, daily Re.1 will be deducted from the customer’s balance & this will allow them to make local calls within the BSNL Network (Landline, WLL, Mobile) at a rate of 50 paisa/minute. All STD call will be charged at Re.1. To activate the plan SMS “ACT 1″ to 53733. “MAHA MAGIC 1.5″ – Local calls @ 20 p/min BSNL network Under this scheme, daily Rs. 1.50 will be deducted from the customer’s balance & would be allowed to make local BSNL network calls (Landline, WLL, Mobile) to any network at a rate of 20 paisa per minute. To activate the plan SMS “ACT 1.5″ to 53733.

“MAHA MAGIC 2″ – Local calls (All networks) within Maharashtra & Goa @ 49 p/min Under this scheme, daily Rs.2.00 will be deducted from the customer’s balance & would be allowed to make local calls to any network (Landline, WLL, Mobile) within the state at a rate of 49 paisa per minute. To activate the plan SMS “ACT 2″ to 53733.

“MAHA MAGIC 4″ – Local calls @ 1 p/min to BSNL network Under this scheme, daily Rs. 4 will be deducted from the customer’s balance & would be allowed to make local calls within BSNL Network (Landline, WLL, Mobile) at a rate of 1 paisa per minute. To activate the plan SMS “ACT 4″ to 53733.

“MAHA MAGIC 5″ – All Network local & STD calls at 50 p/min Under this scheme, daily Rs.5 will be deducted from the customer’s balance & would be allowed to make all local & STD calls to any network across India at a rate of 50 paisa per minute. To activate the plan SMS “ACT 5″ to 53733 All other call and SMS charges are as per normal Prepaid tariff plan. BSNL Maharashtra also reduces its life time pre-paid at Rs.54 with a talktime of Rs. 40.

Virgin Mobile Hybrid Plan is their Bread Butter

Sometimes more subscribers isn’t always better. The bad news for Virgin Mobile that they lost a net 269,000 subscribers in the second quarter. One would think it’s tough to find a silver lining in that, but it’s certainly there for them.




Beyond their acquisition by Sprint Nextel, Virgin saw a consumer shift to more profitable hybrid plans. This allowed their net income to rise while their operating revenue fell. So while Virgin is losing customers like its to-be parent company, at least Virgin is seeing those remaining customers migrate to plans which benefit the company.

It makes sense that hybrid plans — those which mimic contract plans by offering a set number of minutes for a fixed monthly price — would bring in more revenue. When balances run low, they’ll conserve,delaying the purchase of another top-up card. But with hybrid plans,the customer is already locked into a set amount monthly. That gives Virgin a steady income.

Over the next quarter, Virgin will likely focus on getting more customers on hybrid plans, even if it means losing subscribers overall. Perhaps this will be part of an industry-wide movement, where pay-as-you-go customers will move to a carrier like Net10, which specialized in pay-as-you-go, while hybrid customers will pick up Virgin or Boost Mobile.

BSNL revises many its plans

Some more tariff revisions have been announced for BSNL. The state-owned telecom operator has reduced rent of some of its post-paid mobile plans. The One India plan 299 has been merged with plan 225. Free Roaming plan 550 has been merged with plan 525. Subscribers of plan 299 and plan 550 will be migrated by default to plan 225 and plan 525 respectively. Tariff under plan 490 has been rationalized and fixed monthly charge has been reduced from Rs.490 to Rs.425.



Some new talk plans in place of existing ones for its post-paid customers have also been introduced.

BSNL has replaced some of its existing plans like Plan-299, Plan-490 and Plan-550 with three new plans, offering lower tariff and reduced call rates, BSNL said in a statement.It has also launched an unlimited night calling facility with its Plan-525 and Plan-999, while free GPRS would be made available for higher tariff options like Plan-725 and Plan-999.

The telecom major is also offering a rebate of two month’s fixed monthly charges under the annual payment option. Under SMS-Power Plan, messaging rates have been reduced by 75 per cent for local SMSs and by 50 per cent for national ones.

Reliance Mobile unique contest amidst ICC Trophy

Reliance Mobile, the ‘Global Partner’ for the ICC Champions Trophy South Africa 2009, today announced various consumer initiatives as part of its partnership for the tournament scheduled to begin next month.




These initiatives were announced during the Reliance Mobile Trophy Preview for the ICC Champions Trophy. This marked the beginning of Reliance Mobile’s Trophy Preview in India before the tournament commences in South Africa on September 22nd, 2009. The ICC Champions Trophy will be handed over to the winning team of the 2009 edition of the tournament.

The ICC Champions Trophy is even more exciting for cricket fans and
Reliance customers throughout India with this contest.

Commenting on Reliance Mobile’s association with ICC Champions Trophy, South Africa 2009, Akshay Kumar, Senior Executive Vice President, Reliance Communications said, “ We are initiating various
consumer-friendly promotions and initiatives for our customers and channel partners based on the ICC Champions Trophy, South Africa 2009.”




Leveraging its association with ICC to benefit customers, Reliance Mobile is planning to organize interactive contests on R-World as part of its ICC Champions Trophy South Africa 2009 initiative. The company plans to organize this contest across various platforms of R-World including CRBT, Voice Portal, SMS etc. Those wishing to participate in this unique contest will have the freedom to choose their platform as per their preference & ease of using a platform. The contest will be launched across both GSM and CDMA networks.

For instance, on Voice Portal, a subscriber will be able to dial a particular multimodal number, subscribe to the Cricket Score subscription services post which he will have to answer a skill- based question. Select winners of the contest could win a trip to South Africa.

Moreover, Reliance Mobile will go Live with all ICC Champions Trophy,South Africa 2009 matches through its R-World VAS platform. Reliance Mobile subscribers will be able to catch all the excitement of this tournament on their handsets. Reliance Mobile will also provide subscribers an option to have match scores and expert commentary on the matches as their caller-tune.

Effectively, it is in one location with two world-class venues at The Wanderers and Centurion. It is a short, sharp event with just the top eight-ranked ODI teams taking part in international competition. The event is all about prestige. It features the best players competing for a major ICC title with more prize money on offer than ever before with a total of US$4million at stake.

Airtel Special 5 Plan

This was surely coming from the countries largest mobile operator, Airtel. Ever since TATA Indicom was launched with all ‘first of its kind’ rates in India, other mobile operators should have been on their feet.




Airtel now announces ‘Special 5‘ offer where you can call any 5 Airtel numbers for incredible rates. This offer looks similar to the one which BSNL has for its customers. But it’s interesting to see Airtel jump into such offers, prior to which Airtel has seemingly high rates compared to other networks but was relying hugely on its Network quality.

Under this ‘Special 5′ offer you can not only call local Airtel numbers but also add any Airtel STD numbers. However, the charges for local and STD calls differ but are still far lower than any offer Airtel introduced ever so far.As the name may suggest that you can add up to 5 Airtel numbers in your ‘Special 5′ numbers list. Calls to local Airtel number in that list of 5 will be charged at 20 p/min and calls to STD numbers will be charged at 50 p/min.

This offer is all about giving you freedom to contact your friends and family. Previously in F & F offer, only local calls could be added but now you can even add STD numbers.And there will be a registration charges of Rs.5 per each number and a daily rental of Rs.1/each number (as per Airtel customer care) in majority of States in India like AP, WB, Assam, Bihar, North Eastern
States, UP, Punjab, Delhi, HP.

If you reside in Tamilnadu, you have even less rentals at only 20paise per number per day for local numbers and 50 paise per day per number for STD numbers. So in this case if you have 3 local number and 2 STD airtel numbers in your Special 5 Group, you need to pay a daily rental
of Rs.1.60.

All you have to do to activate this offer call 12141 and add your list
of ‘Special 5′ numbers.

Virgin Mobile Hybrid Plan is their Bread Butter

Sometimes more subscribers isn’t always better. The bad news for Virgin Mobile that they lost a net 269,000 subscribers in the second quarter. One would think it’s tough to find a silver lining in that, but it’s certainly there for them.




Beyond their acquisition by Sprint Nextel, Virgin saw a consumer shift to more profitable hybrid plans. This allowed their net income to rise while their operating revenue fell. So while Virgin is losing customers like its to-be parent company, at least Virgin is seeing those remaining customers migrate to plans which benefit the company.

It makes sense that hybrid plans — those which mimic contract plans by offering a set number of minutes for a fixed monthly price — would bring in more revenue. When balances run low, they’ll conserve, delaying the purchase of another top-up card. But with hybrid plans, the customer is already locked into a set amount monthly. That gives Virgin a steady income.

Over the next quarter, Virgin will likely focus on getting more customers on hybrid plans, even if it means losing subscribers overall. Perhaps this will be part of an industry-wide movement, where pay-as-you-go customers will move to a carrier like Net10, which specialized in pay-as-you-go, while hybrid customers will pick up Virgin or Boost Mobile.