After Airtel and Idea Cellular, it is Vodafone who has announced a new roaming pack that will allow users to answer incoming calls in different states in India, free of charge. Similar to Airtel, Vodafone has also introduced a Rs 5 plan for receiving free calls for an entire day.
This Special Tariff Voucher (STV) of Rs 5 is only available for pre-paid customers and is applicable for 24 hours only. When using this daily plan on national roaming, customers can make outgoing calls for 1.5 paisa per second. All they need to do to activate this plan is dial *444*500# and it will do the needful.
Apart from this, the network operator has introduced another plan for pre-paid users which requires them to shell out at least Rs 71. Unlike the STV mentioned above, this plan offers free incoming calls for an entire month. For those who have post-paid connections, the company has monthly schemes starting at Rs 75 to receive calls when not in their home states without shelling out a single penny.
Moreover, the network operator’s Roaming Tariff Plan (RTP) that starts at Rs 196 for pre-paid connections and at Rs 149 for post-paid numbers have also gone live. It should be noted that the prices may vary in different states across the nation. The basic plan proffers a discount on incoming call rates, while the FR plan does not incur incoming charges at all when roaming.
While TRAI or the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had revealed that it was not possible to completely do away with incoming call charges while roaming, the board did slash these rates considerably. Owing to this, the rates are down by 25 percent and local SMS are now cheaper by around 33 percent. The authority had even asked all mobile operators to introduce packs and recharge coupons for free incoming.
The Vodafone STVs are now available for subscribers roaming in the country.