BPL Mobile gears up to compete with MTNL's Dolphin
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited soon plans to launch 'Dolphin,' its cellular service in Mumbai. Its tariff rates stand at Rs 2.70 per outgoing call. These are much lower than those of private cellular operators in the city, like BPL Mobile and Hutchison Max.
When MTNL launched 'Dolphin' in Delhi earlier this month, the private cellular operators in the capital, like Airtel, rapidly slashed their rates to reduce the disparity between the two tariff structures.
Giving a new twist to this price war, BPL Mobile has reportedly revamped its tariff structure to face the tough competition from MTNL. Under the new scheme, the company will charge Rs 2.80 per minute for outgoing calls, and Rs 1.60 per minute for incoming calls. Under the previous Value Standard Plan, both incoming as well as outgoing calls were charged at Rs 4 per minute.
The company has also reduced the charges under the Value Incoming Plan. Where customer had to incur Rs 2800 earlier, they will now have to shell out Rs 2000. While outgoing calls will be pegged at Rs 1 per minute, incoming calls will be free.
Tariff rates under the Value Unlimited Plan have also been slashed. While the rate under this is now Rs 2999 instead of Rs 3999, outgoing as well as incoming calls will both enjoy free airtime.
The charges for Short Message Service have also been reduced from Rs 2 per message to Re 1 per message.
In addition to the regular tariff structure, the company also plans to introduce a few other schemes. One of them is the Value 499 Plan, under which outgoing calls will be charged at Rs 2.65 per minute, whereas incoming calls will be charged at Rs 1.50 per minute.
Another plan in the pipeline is the Value 999 Plan, which proposes to charge outgoing calls at Rs 2.25 per minute, and incoming calls at Rs 1.25 per minute.
However the company plans to some extent compensate for this drastic reduction in tariffs by increasing the rental for its free service from 9 am to 9 pm to Rs 150 from Rs 99.