Bangalore: Gajanan Gowda (name changed), a teacher from Chikmagalur district in Karnataka uses his cellphone sparingly. Usually, his calls last less than a minute. But even if he makes a 20-second local call, he pays the price for a one-minute call.
In effect, Gowda pays for the extra 40 seconds that he is not using. For a large number of Indians like Gowda—especially those from semi-urban and rural areas where 50 paise and 25 paise coins are still valued—this is set to change.
Tata DoCoMo, a late entrant in the country’s hugely-popular GSM sector, has launched its services where customers will pay a paise for each second of usage. So for Gowda’s 20-second call, he will pay 20 paise, and not more. On a monthly basis, this could cut down on Gowda’s phone bill substantially.
The ‘pulse war’, as the telecom industry is terming the Tata DoCoMo move, was launched a month ago and has already caused a big flutter in the Indian mobile phone market. While it could change the way an average Indian pays for his mobile calls, the plan could also force incumbent telecom companies to either cut tariffs or go the Tata DoCoMo way of payby-the-pulse service
Many tier-II towns and rural areas are witnessing serpentine queues for Tata Do-CoMo Lifetime SIM cards. They cost Rs 99 and come with Rs 43 talktime.
Tata DoCoMo has entered nine circles including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Chennai, the rest of Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Mumbai, the rest of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh. The service provider has been allocated spectrum for all the other telecom circles, except Delhi, and a country-wide rollout is expected in a few months.
“I had to stand in queue for hours together for three days to get a Tata DoCoMo SIM card. On the first two days, the SIM cards got over much before my turn came,’’ said Raju P M, a technician with Doordarshan in Dharmasthala in Karnataka.
Over 80,000 Tata DoCoMo SIM cards were sold on a single day in and around Mangalore. “I have been trying to get a SIM card since its launch, but, so far, I have not been successful,’’ said Ganesh Kedar, a teacher from Koppa in Chikmagalur. Similar stories have emerged from Lucknow, Nagpur, Kochi and Guntur in AP.
Tata officials told TOI that the market response was unprecedented. “It’s too early to give a number, since the service is just a month old now. However, we are truly overwhelmed,’’ said Anil Sardana, MD of Tata Teleservices. Tata DoCoMo has already exhausted the first 10-lakh number series in all their nine circles. In some circles, the service is close to moving to the third lot of 10-lakh numbers.
According to telecom analysts, no telecom tariff can get more simple and cheaper and therefore, Tata might become a true game-changer in the market. “Tata’s pulse game has actually made the rest of the industry sit up and take notice. The market will soon witness a ruthless onslaught with others too trying out similar services,’’ said a telecom analyst.
BSNL is said to be working on a pulse-based mobile service. However, BSNL (Karnataka), principal general manager, Ghosh Shubhendu, said he was not aware of any such plans.
Deepak Kumar, head of telecom research in IDC India, said, “The industry is currently in a wait-and-watch mode. Technology is not a barrier for anyone, but implementation and integration with existing networks and systems can be challenging.’’ According to a recent Trai survey, on an average, 20% of telecom tariff is levied against unused air-time. For instance, irrespective of the length of the call—be it 5 seconds or 60 seconds—callers are charged for the full minute.
Tata DoCoMo also offers a wide range of VAS (value added services) for the same tariff. Test messages are charged at a paisa a letter, without counting the space in between words. A message like “How are you?’’ will cost the subscriber 9 paise.
Source :Timesofindia
No comments:
Post a Comment