Starting a price war, Reliance Communications on Tuesday slashed its roaming rates by about 70 per cent at the lowest 40 paise a minute on some select plans, while incoming has been made just Re 1 per minute.

Incoming calls on roaming has been reduced to just Re 1 a minute from Rs 1.75 a minute.

In February, TRAI had reduced the roaming charges, as per which, the maximum permissible charge for roaming calls, irrespective of terminating networks and tariff plans, was set at Rs 1.40 per minute for outgoing local calls, Rs 2.40 for outgoing national long distance calls and Rs 1.75 for incoming calls. The telecom regulator had already removed rentals.

Roaming charge reduction gained more ground after former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran had told the media that he was planning the abolition of national roaming charges as a gift to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on his birthday on June 3.

The current Minister A Raja has said the Government is looking into the possibility.

Reliance Communications President (Personal Business) S.P Shukla said, “Now, we have taken a step further by reducing roaming rates to as low as 40 paise per minute on select plans.

This should add real value to those customers, who travel frequently. A significant feature of this rate reduction has been on incoming calls, while roaming, which have been reduced from current Rs 1.75 per minute to Re 1 per minute.

This move of Reliance comes close on the heels of launch of the Rs 777 monochrome handset, Rs 1234 colour handset and the Rs 499 Lifetime Recharge Voucher.

All these moves were aimed at expanding the mobility market. Now, with this roaming initiative, Reliance has made its proposition highly attractive for our frequently travelling high-usage customers, Shukla said.

These plans on Post-paid and Pre-paid are available for subscription starting today.