It's pouring money for cellular firms

For the mobile operators in Maharashtra, the monsoon mayhem was a blessing in disguise. The state, which is divided into two telecom circles "" Mumbai and Rest of Maharashtra (RoM) "" registered a spurt in outgoing calls and SMSs, as cell phones was the easiest "" and sometimes the only "" mode of communication available.

The increase in usage was as high as 50 per cent for certain companies on certain days of the rain-hit week "" that is from July 25 to July 31. Except for Reliance Infocomm, all other operators registered rise in outgoing calls and SMSs.

Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) registered a 50 per cent increase in outgoing calls on July 26, the worst rain-hit day of the past week. The CDMA-based cellular service provider had clocked around 13.8 million calls on that day in Mumbai, compared with 9.5 million calls it normally registers on a daily basis.

For RoM, it was around 8.5 million calls, up by 21.43 per cent, from 7 million calls that were being registered on a daily basis, according to TTSL Managing Director Charles Antony.

TTSL also recorded a 50 per cent increase in SMSes during the week, with its subcribers sending around 1.65 million messages, compared to a daily average of 1.1 million SMSes. The increase in usage was not steady during the week, as it fluctuated on certain days, he said.

Mobile operator Airtel recorded 51 per cent rise in outgoing calls on July 28. The service provider had made all outgoing calls free for 24 hours from July 27 (Wednesday) 6 pm, which resulted it in clocking the maximum number of outgoing calls on July 28, Thursday .

The operator had posted a rise in outgoing calls during the rain-hit week, even though figures were not immediately available.

Industry observers believe that the rise in company's outgoing calls from its network ranged between 20 per cent and 30 per cent.

Orange also posted an increase in outgoing calls, even though the figures were yet to be collated. The increase was also reflected in SMSs, according to Orange Chief Operating Officer Harit Nagpal.

"There was an increase in both voice and data usage, but we won't be able to quantify at this point of time. The rise was natural, as people were anxious to find out about their near and dear ones," he added.

However, Reliance Infocomm Ltd (RIC) did not register any rise in calls between the company's handsets (Reliance to Reliance). On the contrary, it registered a slight dip in calls from its network to other networks.

An RIC spokesperson said that the company's network was sturdy and functional during the week, while the dip in calls were due to network failure at the receiving end. "What was important for us was to maintain our network, rather than enhancing usage at a time of crisis," he said.