New Delhi: In a bid to compete with limited mobile services by basic service providers, cellular companies on January 2 announced a uniform mobile-to-mobile STD rate of Rs 2.99 per minute.

Announcing the new tariff package on behalf of cellular operators, Communication and IT Minister Pramod Mahajan told reporters that this was the first instalment of the new rates and the industry would announce many more concessions on a weekly basis to "kill rivals in instalments".

As per the new tariff structure, all the STD calls from mobile-to-mobile irrespective of distance (beyond 50 kms) and time would be charged at a flat rate against the peak of Rs 9 a minute charged till now for calls beyond 500 kms.

The charges for distance upto 50 kms would remain unchanged at Rs 1.20 per minute.

So far, subscribers were being charged Rs 2.40 for calls upto distance of 200 kms, Rs 4.80 for distance upto 500 kms and Rs 9 for distance beyond 500 kms, Mahajan said adding that while charges were double during the day, subscribers paid single rate during the night.

"Now nobody has to wait for the night to make STD calls. It is death of both the distance and time," he said.

Earlier in his opening remarks, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Director General T V Ramachandran said that the operators would take aggressive action to hold on to their market share.

PTI