Bharti Airtel launches per-second billing

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel, India's top mobile operator, said on Friday it had launched a per-second billing plan, a reaction to increasing price competition in the world's fastest-growing mobile market.

Customers will be charged 1 paise per second for all local and national long-distance calls within Bharti's network and 1.20 paise per second for calls to other network, it said. A paise is one-hundreth of a rupee (2 U.S. cents).

Bharti Airtel is facing tough competition from smaller rivals, including Tata Teleservices which has grabbed market share with its per-second billing system.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by John Mair)