Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile phone service provider, on Monday announced abolition of all national roaming charges for both voice and data services as a move to counter competition from Reliance Jio.

Airtel announced removal of all roaming charges for outgoing and incoming calls as well as SMSes and data usage within India and a cut in the international call rates from April 1. Call charges have been reduced by up to 90 per cent to as low as Rs 3 per minute and data charges by up to 99 per cent to Rs 3 per MB across roaming destinations.

The company has also simplified international roaming for its customers even when they do not buy roaming packs and said that there will be no bill shocks – daily billing will be automatically adjusted to the price of basic one day pack even for customers who don’t buy a roaming pack.

With this, Airtel mobile customers will be able to carry their numbers across India and the world.

Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal said: “At Airtel, we are changing the international roaming paradigm, which will allow our customers to take their number to every corner of the world. As an industry, operators across the world must collaborate to remove the cost barrier to roaming and offer customers the convenience of staying connected without the fear of exorbitant bill charges.”

Starting from April 1, as Airtel removes roaming charges, Relaince Jio’s freebies will end and it will finally start charging its users, though at sharply discounted rates.