Mobile call rates have come down by 83% in 9 years

Do you feel you’re getting ripped off by your service provider every time you make a call from your mobile phone? Or that the call rates are too high? Well, the government has just revealed that the average cost of a mobile phone call has dropped by 83 percent to 47 paise in the last nine years. Amidst this, the government said that the wireless subscriber base has expanded about 25-fold to more than 86 crores. 

The Ministry of Communications and IT has said that the average tariff for every outgoing call per minute for GSM services had reduced from Rs 2.89 in March 2004 to 47 paise in December 2012. “The wireless subscriber base increased from 33.6 million in March 2004 to 864.72 million as on December 2012,” it said. 

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Calls cheaper now, than nine years ago? (Image credit: Getty Images)

What’s more! The government added that in its nine-year rule, the Indian telecom sector has grown phenomenally to become the second largest telephone network in the world after China. “A series of reform measures by the government, the wireless technology and active participation by private sector played an important role in the exponential growth of the telecom sector in the country,” it said. 

The government went on to add that with the implementation of National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012, the number of telephonic connections rose to 893.14 million as on January 2013, while the overall teledensity stood at 73.07 percent as against 7.04 percent in March 2004. The rural teledensity also crossed 40 per cent in January 2103 from 1.7 per cent in March 2004, added the government. 

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