Bharti Airtel on Monday announced that its customers will not be charged for calls, SMSes and data while on roaming within the country starting April 1. The move by the telecom major comes a week after Mukesh Ambani announced a similar offer for Reliance Jio customers.
Airtel said incoming calls and SMSes will be free and no premium on outgoing calls will be charged while roaming across India. There won’t be any data roaming charges either and home data packs chosen by the customers will apply while roaming as well. “Bill shocks will now be a thing of the past,” the company said in a statement.
“This marks the death of national roaming...Airtel has again set the benchmark in delivering best in class value backed by a great network experience,” said Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel, Gopal Vittal, said.
The company also announced benefits on international roaming. If a customer has not subscribed to the international pack while travelling abroad and their bill reaches the price of a one-day pack for that particular country offered by Airtel, the customer will automatically be moved to that pack. This means a customer can automatically enjoy the benefits of packs offered by the company even without opting for it.
Call charges have been reduced to as low as Rs 3/min and data charges will now be Rs 3/MB across “popular roaming destinations”, the company’s statement said.
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