After “free” incoming calls with “lifetime” validity, it’s the turn of outgoing calls to start becoming free.
NEW DELHI: Talk, they say, is cheap. Soon, it may be free. Cut-throat competition is effectively moving mobile operators in this direction. After “free” incoming calls with “lifetime” validity, it’s the turn of outgoing calls to start becoming free.
Tata Teleservices, a mobile services provider, on Wednesday kicked off a scheme called ‘Don’t stop mobile’ offering free outgoing calls for two years within a state for prepaid users.
Is there a catch? Yes. The “free” calls are currently limited to Tata Indicom customers, and the free limit is 60 hours over two years - which means you can call your friends and relatives for up to five minutes a day.
And they have to be Tata customers. If they use some other service provider, you pay Rs1.80 a minute for local calls and Rs3 for long-distance. To be part of the latest scheme, one also needs to buy a handset with an entry price of Rs2,299.
But telecom users should not worry too much about these caveats, for competition is bound to make calls freer soon.
Even though prominent cellular players contacted by DNA refused to react to the Tata announcement, there’s little doubt that others will come up with their own “free” offers.
In fact, the industry already has limited offers of free outgoing calls. Idea Cellular, for example, offers the first two minutes free for prepaid vouchers of various denominations - with strings attached, of course.
This scheme is valid for four voucher denominations - Rs100, Rs250, Rs750, and Rs2,000. The validity differs, depending on the voucher denomination. It could be anything from a day to 30 days.
Reliance Infocomm also made a free outgoing calls announcement in January. The company said that on three handsets costing Rs2,700, Rs3,999, and Rs7,999, subscribers would get outgoing calls free worth Rs2,000 along with 2,000 free local SMSes. The cheaper handsets costing Rs1,999 and Rs3,500 would come with free talk-time of Rs1,000.
So why are cellular companies extra-sweet to customers these days? With competition getting sharper, they are fighting to retain market share. With Tata Teleservices still at No 6 in the mobile pecking order with 5.32 million subscribers (9 million, taking fixed-wireless and landline subscribers), it has a bigger stake in making innovative moves to grab customers.
Another reason is the slowdown in customer growth. After growing more than five million new subscribers in March, in April growth fell to 3.9 million. The industry needs more steroids (read: “free” offers) to continue growing its user base over the next year or two before it can shift focus to growing revenues. Average monthly bills from mobile customers are still just around Rs300 a month.
The third reason is urban saturation. In Mumbai and Delhi, for example, mobile penetration is already 50 and 41 per cent, respectively. Real growth is coming from the smaller, non-metro circles and even semi-urban and rural areas.
That’s why some telecom companies even offer instalment deals. Airtel has announced that the “lifetime” free prepaid scheme can be billed over 12 months, at just Rs91 a month. EMI is not just for housing and car loans anymore.
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