Spice Telecom slashes ISD rates

Spice Telecom, one of the cellular service providers in Punjab, on Friday announced a 'special ISD offer' for its subscribers in the state, reducing international calling rates from Rs 16 to Rs 3.99 per minute.

Spice Telecom chief operating officer Navin Kaul said that the rates, applicable 24 hours a day, would be enforced from January 9, coinciding with the "Pravasi Bharati Divas", till Baisakhi which is on April 13.

"With this offer, making ISD calls from a Spice mobile is now cheaper by 75 per cent as compared to the prevailing rates," he said.

Kaul said that Spice also announced the "new roaming rates on postpaid" by cutting the charges from existing Rs 6 per minute to Rs 1.99 per minute for receiving and making local calls.

He said that the new ISD rates of Rs 3.99 per minute had been announced to encourage dialogue with the non-resident Indian community.

Speaking on the occasion, Spice Telecom president Umang Das said that the target of the company was to achieve 100 million subscriber base by 2005 at the national level.

Punjab's NRI affairs commissioner and secretary D S Bains said that about Rs 40 crore (Rs 400 million) had been invested by NRIs in Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur districts in projects of their choices in the past 20 years.

He said that the state government would celebrate 'Punjabi homecoming' from April 10 to 14. The meet is being convened to bring a host of developmental benefits to Punjab in areas of economic growth and employment generation.