Airtel Removes Cap On Free Outgoing Call To Other Networks, More Details Inside

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has removed cap from free outgoing calls on other networks under its new plans for pre-paid customers that came into effect from December 3.

The company had earlier capped outgoing calls to network of other telecom operator to 1,000 minutes in case of plans with 28 days validity, 3,000 in 84 days validity plans and 12,000 in 365 days validity plan.

Beyond this limit, customers were required to pay 6 paisa per minute for outgoing calls. “From tomorrow, enjoy unlimited calling to any network in India with all our unlimited plans. No conditions apply,” Bharti Airtel said in a tweet on Friday.

The company on December 1 announced new plans under which call, and data charges became dearer for its pre-paid customers by up to 50 per cent from December 3.

The company had announced new plans in ‘unlimited’ category with 2 days, 28 days, 84 days, 365 days validity which on the back of the envelope calculations showed higher price of up to 50 per cent Bharti Airtel increased its entry level unlimited plan with a yearlong validity by about 50 per cent to Rs 1,499, with 24 GB of data, in place of Rs 998 plan which comes with 12 GB data usage limit.

The price of 365-days validity plan in the same category with daily data usage limit of 1.5 GB per day now costs 41.2 per cent more at Rs 2,398.

The company also announced three new plans - Rs 219 with 28 days validity offering 1 GB per day, Rs 399 and Rs 449 plan with 56 days validity each, offering 1.5 Gb and 2 GB data usage, respectively.

With the removal of limit, Airtel’s new 399 plans with 56 days validity becomes cheaper than that of Reliance Jio plan at same price. The move from both the companies follows Supreme Court judgement on adjusted gross revenue.

Bharti Airtel has posted a staggering Rs 23,045 crore net loss for the second quarter ended September 30, due to provisioning of Rs 28,450 crore in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling on statutory dues.

This is the highest ever loss of India’s second-largest wireless telecom services provider. Bharti Airtel, which has been hit hard by the Supreme Court ruling on statutory dues, recorded net income of Rs 119 crore in the same quarter a year ago, although it said that amount are not comparable due to adoption of new accounting system.

The consolidated revenue of Bharti Airtel was up by 4.7 per cent at Rs 21,199 crore in the just concluded quarter. The company said that the top court ruling has ‘significant financial implication on the company’.

The Supreme Court, last month, upheld the government's position on including revenue from non-telecommunication businesses in calculating the annual AGR of telecom companies, a share of which is paid as licence and spectrum fee to the exchequer.

Old telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea will take the maximum hit on the payment of statutory dues to the government.

(With inputs from PTI)