Not only this, incoming calls will become free and airtime charges will go down from the present Rs 6 per minute to Rs 4 per minute for the first minute and Rs 2 for every 30 seconds after that. Non-metro customers will pay Rs 4.50 for the first minute and Rs 2.25 for every additional 30 seconds.

But for regular landline users dialling cell numbers, there is bad news. Charges will go up by four times for a three-minute call. If you are in the low telephone usage slab where every call is charged at Rs 0.80 per three minutes, a call to a cellphone number will now cost you Rs 1.60 in the first minute and Rs 0.80 per minute after that. For a three-minute call, you would end up paying Rs 3.20.

For medium slab users (Rs 1/3 mins), the rates would be Rs 2 for the firstminute and an additional Rs 1 per minute. Which adds up to Rs 4 for a three-minute call. Similarly, if he falls in the Rs 1.20 per metered call, the first minute will cost him Rs 2.40; Rs 4.80 for a three-minute call.

With this, the Telecom Regulatory Authority India (TRAI) has introduced the calling party pays (CPP) -- a caller who is trying to contact a person who is mobile would have to pay a `premium' on the service. This would be done through the increased rates of these calls to be incurred by the landline caller which would be shared between the cellular operators and the basic service operator.

From the call charges earned by the fixed phone operator through calls to cellphones, Rs 1.60 has to be paid to the cellphone operator for carrying a one-minute call.

TRAI chairman Justice S S Sodhi said that the new tariffs would help increase the cellphone penetration and usage in the country. Whether normal phone users agree with this principle will be determined only after they receive their firstpost-November 1 bill.

THE PACKAGE