Airtel offers free incoming calls on international roaming

Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telecommunications services provider, has launched new international roaming (IR) packs providing free incoming calls while the customer is on international roaming.

Additionally, the IR packs offer bundles of data, free India calling minutes, free incoming calls and free texts to India. 

The packs will be available to both postpaid and prepaid customers. Charges for calls to India and local in-country calls have been reduced to Rs 3 per minute across popular destinations.

Airtel also announced that post the exhaustion of pack data benefits, international roaming data will now be charged at Rs3 per MB, a reduction of 99 per cent from Rs 650 per MB.

''The new roaming packs are in line with our commitment to provide our customers a seamless international roaming experience and great value. The number of Indians traveling overseas for leisure and business is growing rapidly and our new IR packs ensure that customers get no bill shocks and have the convenience of always keeping their phones switched on, wherever they are,'' Ajai Puri, director–operations (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel said.

The IR packs, which are available for all popular global destinations, come with validity of one day and 30 days.

The one day pack is designed for short and quick international trips and for about $10 the pack is particularly useful for business travelers who may be traveling to multiple destinations for short durations.

The Rs649 ($10) pack for the US, Canada with one day validity offers 300 MB data, unlimited incoming calls, 100 mins of India calling, and unlimited texts to India.

The 30-day pack offers connectivity through long duration trips for about $75 and is loaded with data and India calling benefits. This offers seamless connectivity during single country business trips / vacation of up to a month.

The Rs4,999 ($75) pack for the US, Canada offers 3GB data, unlimited incoming calls, 400 minutes of calls to India, and unlimited texts to India. The company will charge all calls (post free minutes) to India and within local within destination will be charged at Rs 3 per minute.

With the holiday season around the corner, Airtel plans to launch a $45 medium duration pack with 10 days validity by middle of October 2016.