KATHMANDU: Spice Nepal Private Limited (SNPL) and United Telecom Limited (UTL) are cutting down on tariff rates that will come into effect from this Nepali New year.

According to new tariff structure, local call made from Mero Mobile prepared phone to GSM and CDMA mobile phones is fixed at Rs. 2.53 per minute, while the tariff rate on local calls from Mero Mobile postpaid phone to Nepal Telecom’s GSM and CDMA will cost Rs 2.29. Earlier, these calls would cost Rs 3.99 and Rs 2.75, respectively.

Likewise, new SNPL tariff rate from its prepaid phones and Mero Mobile’s postpaid to landline and fixed phone lines of Nepal Telecom and United Telecom stand at Rs 2.53 2.13 and Rs 1.89 respectively. SNPL has lowered the charges following reduction in interconnection charges.

Mero Mobile has said that it would bring down tariff rates on local calls from its prepaid phone to UTL’s fixed phone and limited mobility phone to Rs 2.33 and Rs 2.83, respectively. The cost of these calls stood at Rs 3.99 earlier. Similarly, per minute tariffs on calls made from Mero Mobile postpaid phone to UTL’s fixed phone and limited mobility phone have been brought down to Rs 2.09 and Rs 2.59, respectively. The same would cost Rs 2.75 in the past.

Meanwhile, United Telecom has also announced reduction in its tariff rates. On the new tariff format, local calls made from from UTL’s fixed and limited-mobility phones to Mero Mobile will cost Rs 1.50 per minute. Similarly, long distance calls made from UTL phones to Mero Mobile will cost Rs 2, a reduction of 25 percent. During the off hours, the new UTL charge within its network will be Rs 0.60 per minute.