Telcos unimpressed by Virgin's scheme

Indian telecom operators will take time to roll out 'get paid for receiving calls' scheme despite its launch by British telecom company Virgin Mobile. The telecom operators are not so convinced of the scheme's potential.

The operators believe that the industry is not ready for these services, even though such plans are good for users in Singapore.

The service charges in the country are already lowest in the world and will not slide further for sometime. Moreover, this is also against the existing practice of an operator trying to match every scheme launched by competitors.

"We have no intentions of introducing the plan at present. At the end of the day, products and prices should be evaluated in their totality, and so, we have never considered launching a package or service in isolation," said Bharti Airtel President (Mobile Services) Sanjay Kapoor.

Adding that Bharti Airtel's services were 'competitive', he said, the company evaluates market conditions before launching any scheme.

Ditto for Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar. The companies' executives have confirmed that there were no immediate plans to launch the services.

BPL Mobile Director and CEO S Subramaniam, said, "We have no immediate plans to roll out the services as we believe the eco-system in the country is not ready to support this. These schemes will not be beneficial to established players In India even though they will help companies starting operations to get a foothold in the country."

According to an analyst, who did not want to be named, the plans are unexpected as an operator launches similar or even better schemes than its competitors.

Launching Virgin Mobile telecom brand in India under a franchisee agreement with CDMA company Tata Teleservices, the UK-based Virgin Group ushered in the regime of 'making payments to users for receiving calls'.

The company is crediting airtime worth 10 paise to a user's account for every 60-second call received. Although it did not divulge details of the scheme, industry analysts were of opinion that the company was crediting one-third of the termination charges received from other players. The termination charges for a 60-second call are 30 paise at present.

"The model which all of us are looking at, involves crediting airtime to the user for listening to a 10-second advertisement jingle. But this will take time as advertisers and mobile operators will have to gear up for this regime," said Subramaniam.