India's Mobile Telephony Tariffs Lowest In Asia

["Irfan Khan" <khania2@super.net.pk>]

September 24, 2002 

India's Mobile Telephony Tariffs Lowest In Asia 
 
 
By Ashutosh Sinha

India has one of the lowest telephony tariffs in Asia-Pacific, said 
the Cellular Operators Association of India (COIA). A monthly package 
for 300 minutes of airtime usage in India costs only US$16 as 
compared to US$65.93 in the Philippines, US$53.59 in Pakistan, 
US$42.40 in Indonesia, US$39.47 in Malaysia, US$29.09 in Thailand and 
US$20.86 in China. 

In the first half of 1999, India's cellular tariffs were hovering 
around US$0.40 per minute but in August 1999, the Indian government 
moved to a revenue sharing scheme that helped drove prices downwards. 
Then, there were two cellular operators in each of the 21 telecom 
circles. Now, that has doubled to four.

All cellular companies in India are using the Global System for 
Mobiles (GSM) standard. But Reliance Infocom will soon be introducing 
the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard for mobile 
telephony where incoming calls will be free and outgoing calls will 
be charged at US$0.01 cents per minute. This, analysts said, will 
reduce cellular tariffs further. 

Industry executives say that companies are paying 35-42 percent of 
their revenues in interconnect charges, spectrum user charges and 
service tax. If these can be reduced further, India's cellular 
tariffs could end up being the lowest in the world. 

source: 
http://asia.internet.com/briefs/article/0,3916,4141_1468731,00.html