Firm plans call centre to play navigator

At a time when telecom majors in the country are looking at incorporating high-end navigational technologies such as the global positioning systems (GPS) and Google Maps in handsets, Reliance Communications (RCom) has decided to launch a call centre to help its subscribers locate a particular destination.

The call centre will provide answers on the shortest route to a particular destination, important places to visit while travelling to another city, location of theatres, hospitals and even ATMs. The information, if required, will also be texted to user.

The service called ‘Lost? Call Us’ (LCU) is currently undergoing pilot phase in Andhra Pradesh. It will be launched across the country within a fortnight. “The test phase of the service is almost completed and the results are highly encouraging. We are receiving over 1,000 calls per day during the test phase time, and this being a mass application we expect the number of calls to increase further,” RCom Head (Value-Added Service) Krishna Durbha said.

“We will charge Rs 3 per call, but at this point we don’t know whether it’s on the higher or lower side. We will take a call on this later depending on the response,” he added.

The importance of the service, according to the company, is that a user does not need a high-end mobile phone with GPS systems in it. However, high-end features such as vehicle tracking (available on GPS for commercial application) cannot be provided under this.

RCom, the telecom arm of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, has already mapped 33,000 villages and towns and another 20 lakh points of interest (like ATMs, hotels and important locales) in the country. These will be stored on a centralised server with access provided to every call centre agent.

The company has entered into an alliance with Noida-based Altruist, a wireless technology service provider, for the value-added service. Initially, the service will be available between 6.30 am and 11.30 pm on all days, and will be made a 24X7 service, depending on the demand. The service is available in 17 languages, including English, Hindi and Telugu.

For the rollout of the service, Altruist has entered into a technical tie-up with SatNav Technologies, which will be providing the maps and application for this service.