Telecom Industry in India is witnessing dramatic changes as major service providers are launching attractive and unbelievable plans to increase their share in this world’s most competitive market. Here we compare cheapest prepaid plans (plans without any monthly commitments or additional boosters).

Reliance : Reliance’s Simply Reliance is a very attractive scheme which offers 3 packs.

Simply Reliance Pay per Second : Rs 61 recharge with 1 year validity – all local and STD calls at 1p/sec and all SMS at 50p.

Simply Reliance Pay Per Minute : Rs 51 recharge with lifetime validity – all local/STD calls at 50p/minute and all sms at 50p.

Simply Reliance Pay per Call : Rs 41 with life time validity – all local and std calls at Re 1/ 3min. Local SMS at Re 1 and National SMS at Rs 1.50

Apart from this Reliance offers attractive 1p/SMS packs.

Airtel : Airtel freedom pack offers one second billing with a one time recharge of Rs 22.

Local and STD rates at 1 paisa per second for Airtel numbers and 1.2 paisa per second (72p/minute) for other landline and mobile numbers.

Local SMS at 50p, national at Rs1.5 and International at Rs 3.

BSNL : In Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s General option you have to pay 1paisa per second for all local and national numbers and 1.2p/second for other numbers.

Local SMS at 0.50, national at 0.60 and International at Rs 5.

Tata Docomo : All local and STD calls at 1p/sec. Local SMS at 60p, national at Rs 1.6 and international at Rs 5.00.

Vodaphone : In Vodaphone Ticket Plan you can move to one second billing with a yearly commitment of Rs 65. All local and national vodaphone numbers at 1p/sec and other numbers at 1.2p/sec

In Vodaphone Travel plan all vodaphone numbers at 50p/minute and other numbers at 60p/minute with an yearly recharge of Rs 64.

Local SMS at 1, National at 1.5 and International at Rs 5.

MTS : All local MTS numbers at 35p/minute and other mobiles at 70p/minute. All STD calls at Rs1.40 per minute. Local and national SMS at 50p and International SMS at Rs5.

Tata Indicom : Chutti 49 pack – all local calls at Re 1 and STD at 1.50. In Pay Per Call plan all local calls at Re 1 and STD at Rs 3 for 10 minutes and in Celebration plan all local and STD at 60 paisa/minute (Rs 99 initial recharge in both plans). In Pay per call plan local and national SMS at 50p and international at Rs 5.

Idea : As per the Nimidangal plan (first time recharge of Rs 37) all local calls at 40p/min and all STD calls at 50p/minute. local/national SMS at 50p and international at Rs 5.

In the Nodigal Plan all local and STD calls at 1paisa/second.

Uninor : Talklonger at 29/min – All local calls at 29 paisa/minute and STD at 49p/minute with a call setup charge of 39 paisa. Local SMS at 10p (promotional) and national at Rs 1.49.

Callmore at 29/min – same as talklonger except Rs 2 daily rental instead of call setup charge.

Now let us compare these plans. Suppose you make two calls of 15 minutes duration (local and STD) and another two calls of 30 seconds duration.

Summary

If you make lots of long duration calls then Reliance Pay Per Call and Tata Indicom Pay per Call are ideal for you. Even Idea and uninor will help you to save money in this class.

If you make many short calls (less than 1 minute) then ideal option is Reliance Pay Per Second or Tata Docomo or Idea (1p/sec plan).

Overall reliance is a clear winner with its superb Simply Reliance Offer which offers wide variety of options to suite all class of subscribers and additionally it offers 1p/sec SMS with SMS boosters. Uninor, Tata Indocom and Idea are also offer value for money in both local and STD calls.

* All rates mentioned above are Prepaid tariff rates for Chennai/Tamil Nadu circle (as on 9th Dec 2009). Most of the plans are available in all circles in India either in the same name or a different name. Please refer the respective site or contact the service provider for more info.

Indian Telecom sector is witnessing dramatic changes as more and more operators enter the market and existing players come up unprecedented offers to attract more customers.

After Bharti Airtel slashed roaming rates last week, yesterday state run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) announced a reduction in roaming rates – call rates when the customer is outside the home circle.

As per the announcement BSNL slashed roaming rates to 49 paisa per minute or 1 paisa per second depends on the plan selected. This is a major reduction in the BSNL roaming rates compared to the old rates – Re 1 and Rs 1.5 per minute.

Last week Uninor – a joint venture between Unitech and Telenor launched its GSM services in India. Arab world’s major player Etisalat is planning to launch its service in India soon.