Operators Paging For Bulk Purchase To Bring Down Prices

Pagers to become cheaper by Rs 1,500 as operators hold talks with key manufacturers like Motorola, Casio & Ericsson to tie up the large-scale orders

Paging operators in the country are coming together under the umbrella of their industry association - the Indian Paging Services Association (IPSA) - to buy pagers in large numbers in a bid to drive down prices. The Association hopes to drop prices by Rs 1,000-1,500 from the current Rs 5,000-6,000 for four-line alphanumeric pagers.

Sources confirmed that IPSA had conducted discussions with paging majors like Motorola, NEC, Casio and Ericsson for the proposed bulk order. The paging body had also knocked on the doors of foreign pager makers like Cirkisys Technologies of Hong Kong with the hope of being able to import pagers in large numbers.

However, IPSA is yet to conclude deals with pager manufacturers yet.