KATHMANDU, March 19: Spice Nepal Company Limited (SNPL), the operator of Mero Mobile, is reducing its cell phone tariff rates soon. The first privately-run cell phone company of Nepal has proposed to bring down its per minute pre-paid service rates to between Rs 2.13 (excluding taxes) and Rs 2.83 from existing Rs 3.49 and Rs 3.99, respectively.[break]
As per the revised price structure, a tariff rate of Rs 2.13 has been fixed on local calls made from Mero Mobile’s pre-paid phones to fixed lines of Nepal Telecom (NT) and United Telecom Limited (UTL) – a reduction of Rs 1.36. While local calls made from Mero Mobile’s postpaid phones to land lines of any company will cost Rs 1.89 per minute.
SNPL has also proposed to slash rates on local calls made from its pre-paid phones to NT’s pre-paid phones. According to the new price structure, per minute tariff rate of Rs 2.53 has been fixed on local calls made from Mero Mobile’s pre-paid phone to NT’s pre-paid phone operating on both CDMA and GSM technologies. The existing tariff rate is Rs 3.99. Similarly, a flat rate of Rs 1.27 will be charged per text message sent from Mero Mobile to other carriers including NT and UTL.
Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), the telecom regulatory body of the country, is currently reviewing the proposal. “If approved, the new tariff rates will come into effect from April 14,” a reliable source of NTA told myrepublica.com.
As per the proposal submitted to NTA, SNPL will also slash per minute rates on calls made from Mero Mobile’s pre-paid phones to UTL’s cell phones with limited mobility to Rs 2.33 from existing Rs 3.99. While long distance domestic calls made from Mero Mobile’s pre-paid phones to fixed lines of NT and UTL will cost between Rs 2.79 per minute and Rs 2.81 per minute.
SNPL had made the decision to reduce the tariff rates on the back of NTA’s recent decision to slash interconnection usage charges. Interconnection charges are charges paid by telecom companies for using each other’s networks. As per the revised price structure, any cell phone service provider cannot take more than 0.54 rupees (per minute) from another cell phone service provider, when subscribers of one cell phone company call subscribers of the other company.
Following the decision to revise interconnection charges, NT has also announced to reduce its tariff rates on calls made to Mero Mobile. Beginning April 14, per minute call from NT’s landline to Mero Mobile will cost Rs 1.50. A charge of Rs 2.10 will be levied on calls made from NT’s post-paid mobile phone to Mero Mobile and per minute call from Namaste pre-paid to Mero Mobile will cost Rs 2.50. Similarly, per minute call from NT’s prepaid operating on CDMA technology to Mero Mobile will cost Rs 2.30.
With a customer base of 1.7 million, SNPL is the second largest mobile phone service provider in the country. However, there are claims many of its subscribers are not using the service frequently due to its expensive tariff structure.
*The prices mentioned above are excluding 13 percent VAT and 5 percent service charge.
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