For those who ask how does the customer gain from hiked local call prices: for a nation as large and heterogenous as India, the business efficiencies brought about by cheaper long-distance communication (update: note that long-distance calls have subsidized local calls for a long time now, and rational pricing for both is a welcome move and long overdue) is a huge win: for inter-state commerce, for improved business response times, for increased competition. These business efficiencies will trickle down to the individual too.