Call it the Jio effect or Airtel really thinking about the customers, but this is a very good news. Starting 1st April 2017, you will not have to pay any roaming charges when you roam anywhere in India. Yes, that’s correct. Inconvenient and senseless roaming charges on Airtel network are now officially coming to an end. Besides national roaming, Airtel also announced much fairer international roaming charges.
Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel said, “This marks the death of national roaming and the whole country will now be like a local network for our customers, who will not have to think twice before making or receiving calls or using data while traveling outside their home base. Airtel has again set the benchmark in delivering best in class value backed by a great network experience.”
Goodbye, National Roaming!
Starting April 2017, Airtel will stop charging you differently when you’re roaming outside of your home circle. That means your call rates & SMS costs will stay static, no matter where you are. You’ll be able to pick up calls without worrying about being in a roaming circle. The same applies to data packs. If you have a data recharge, you’ll be able to continue enjoying free internet access outside of your telecom circle.
Fairer International Roaming Bills
Airtel has also made plan changes for business users who roam internationally. The new setup will automatically pull the customer into a plan voucher after a threshold amount is reached. This will avoid shocking bill spikes.
“Starting April 1, 2017, even customers on international roaming Without a Pack will be fully protected from bill shocks through an automatic adjustment that is equal to the daily pack for that particular country. This means that the moment a customer’s billing reaches the price of a one day pack for the country, he/she will be automatically moved to that pack. Even post the exhaustion of pack benefits, customers will continue to enjoy extremely attractive rates for calling and data usage. Call Charges have been reduced by up to 90% to as low as Rs. 3/min and data charges by up to 99% to Rs 3/ MB across popular roaming destinations,”
Reliance Jio also announced last week that it will not charge users extra for roaming outside of their home circle. Now, with Airtel taking a similar path, we can safely conclude that roaming charges will be dropped by all competing operators in India. Airtel must also be readying new plans to counter the Jio Prime membership. Jio prime will allow Jio customers to enjoy free calls, sms & data till March 2018 for a fixed monthly cost of ₹303 only.
How to Activate Free Roaming
There are no special recharges to be made. Airtel is introducing the new scheme for all Airtel customers all over India. All Airtel customers will automatically be enrolled for the free roaming. If you need further information, you can get in touch with Airtel customer support by dialing 121 from your Airtel number.
And just in case you’re wondering, No, this is not an upcoming April fool’s day prank :p
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