Taking the competition from GSM players head on, Tata Teleservices [Get Quote] and Virgin Mobile on Tuesday slashed STD and local rates on pre-paid services to 50 paise per minute.

TTSL-Virgin customers can now call any number, mobile or landline, across networks at only 50 paise per minute after the initial three minutes of the day.

The first three minutes of a STD call each day would cost Rs 1.50 paise per minute while for rest of the day the long distance tariff would drop to just 50 paise per minute for maximum up to 30 minutes.

Similarly, for local calls, for first three minutes of the day calls would be at Re 1 per minute, then for the rest of the day the tariff would be 50 paise a minute.

"Against the industry norm of STD tariff of Re 1 per minute at an additional monthly commitment, new 50 Paise STD-local will provide the lowest all-India STD base tariff offer with no extra cost," Virgin Mobile India CEO M A Madhusudan said.