Tata Tele launches pre-paid fixed wireless service

Company expects to garner 5 lakh customers across India for new service

Private telecom service provider Tata Teleservices today launched for the first time in India a pre-paid service for fixed wireless phones. The service was launched simultaneously in Hyderabad and Delhi.

The company said that its new service will offer up to 25 per cent savings on monthly usage charges with a low rate of 90 paise per pulse. It also offers two free recharge cards worth Rs 540, beside free caller ID and national SMS till May 31, 2004.

Addressing a press conference to announce the launch of the new pre-paid service, Naresh Nalhan, chief operating officer of AP and Delhi circles of Tata Teleservices, said that the mode was primarily aimed at customers who wanted to control the costs associated with phone bills. Tata Teleservices expects to garner five lakh customers across India for this new service in the coming months.

Nalhan said that Tata Teleservices will soon expand its services to 11 more circles. At present, the company's telecom services have been in operation in eight circles, which include Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Chennai and Gujarat with a combined customer base of about 1.6 million.

To get a FWP (fixed wireless phone) connection, the customer has to pay a one time non-refundable registration fee of Rs 2,000 and a refundable deposit of Rs 2,000 towards the handset.

Tata Indicom recharge coupons for the FWP service will be available in Rs 324 and Rs 540 denominations. Each will have a standard 30-day validity period and offer Rs 250 and Rs 450 worth of talk time respectively. The pulse for all the local calls to fixed line/WLL mobiles and GSM mobiles from this FWP phones will be 180 seconds and 60 seconds respectively.

According to Malhan, the pre-paid FWP's will have other features like missed call identification, 99 numbers phone book memory, hotline and 'Always on' incoming facility. It works out of Tata Indicom's CDMA 1x platform.