he monsoon may be on its way out, but the offers from mobile service operators have not stopped pouring in. Reliance India Mobile (RIM), which has a penchant for staying in the news, precipitated yet another price war, at a time when most other mobile operators were mulling a hike in tariffs. Now they are gradually falling in line.

A drastic cut of 60 per cent in the prepaid segment came in August this year, when RIM announced the cheapest intra-circle rates in the country. Under this scheme, the rates of local and intra-circle calls in the RIM prepaid segment were reduced to 99 paisa, down from Rs 2.49. Calls to to other networks and landlines were down to Rs 1.79 from Rs 2.49 and Rs 2.99 respectively. ... more