Okay with per-second billing proposal

Bharti Airtel, the country's number one mobile telephony service provider in terms of subscriber base, has said it welcomes the per-second billing plan mooted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

“We have always perceived the affordability of new customers and that's why we are market leaders. Yesterday, Trai Chairman J S Sharma issued a statement that they will issue a consultation paper on per-second billing and we will avail of that. Our objective is to enhance and maintain our market leadership based on our various strengths built over a period of time,” Manoj Kohli, CEO and Joint Managing Director, told reporters on the sidelines of a company event.

To a query on the company’s strategy on the aggressive reduction of call charges by its rivals, Kohli said Bharti Airtel did not react to competitive initiatives. "We will pursue our own strategy," he said.

On Monday, Reliance Communications, India's second-largest telecom services provider, slashed rates for all local and national calls to 50 paise a minute. Earlier, Vodafone-Essar announced a similar plan for its subscribers.

Kohli said the company was expecting to maintain its monthly addition of three million subscribers, despite the rising competition. "We are very clear; we will maintain, if not enhance, market leadership."

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel has announced a strategic partnership with technology solutions provider Cisco to come out with products targetting the business-to-business (B2B) segment in India, in a phased manner. The partnership will jointly create products, including managed data services, hosted unified communications, connected branch services and Cisco TelePresence, which will be launched in the next 12 months, senior executives of both the companies said.

Wim Elfrink, Chief Globalisation Officer and Executive Vice President, Cisco Services, said the alliance was trying to address the managed services market in India, expected to reach $4 billion by 2030 from about $1.1 bn at present.

“We are thrilled to join hands with Bharti Airtel in an innovative model for managed service providers. Building on the government’s commitment to rapid broadband deployment, we will together deliver transformational services for large enterprise and small and medium-sized business customers,” Elfrink said.