India's four largest mobile operators have all cut prepaid and postpaid tariffs to comply with new regulatory requirements.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications have cut the ceiling on local calls roaming on another network by 20% to 0.80 rupees per minute ($0.013), the Economic Timesreported.
Roaming STD calls have also been reduced by 23% to 1.15 rupees per minute, the operators separately announced.
Customers will also pay 40% less on incoming calls while roaming – or 0.45 rupees pre minute – and 75% less for roaming texts.
Morgan Stanley has estimated that the new ceilings on roaming tariffs will impact revenue by 2% and ebitda by 4%.
But the brokerage firm noted that this impact could be somewhat mitigated if the price cuts trigger a significant increase in roaming minutes.
Indian telecom regulator Trai stipulated the new roaming charge caps last month. The new limits came into effect on May 1.