A Beep Away From Hello!

With the post-budget slash in the price of the cellular handsets and the lucrative schemes offered by both AirTel and Essar CellPhone, who would cast even a cursory glance at its poor cousin, the pager. If that's what you think, maybe it is time to put the spotlight on the pager once again.

Sanjay Vig of Libretto International, says, "Unlike other countries, India catered to both the pagers and the cellphones simultaneously. Thanks to the ease of two-way communication and the style associated with it, cellulars stormed the market while pagers went unnoticed."

However, paging service providers seem to have gone on the offensive during the festive season through aggressive advertising to become more visible. This is most evident in Delhi (see box).

 

But who is the target? Says Nitin Kumar, another dealer, "In Delhi people are more fashion-oriented so the craze for a pager in a market dominated by cellulars is not evident. So instead of targetting fat wallets we are concentrating on the not so affluent."

Vig agrees, "Today the need to communicate at all times has become necessary to succeed. The top brass may not need to purchase a pager but it is a lucrative purchase for the use of sales executives and other employees constantly on the move."

Although, pagers cannot beat the two-way communication facility of cellphones, one also has toconsider the high overheads in the nature of airtime charges for incoming and outgoing calls on a cellular. Coupled with the cost of the handset itis not possible to arm employees with this gizmo. But a pager will result in a fixed monthly rent of Rs 150 for numeric pagers or Rs 250 for the alphanumeric pagers irrespective of the number of calls you receive.

Thanks to the competitiveness of the market, a numeric pager can be bought by simply paying the rent for 18 months and a half-year's (Rs 2,900) in advance without spending a penny towards the hardware.

The world over, people use the cellular and pager in combination. This can drastically reduce the airtime charges on the first by giving people access to your pager. In case of urgency one can call back immediately over the cellular. "This concept is yet to pick up in India. Here people still have no clue about the utility of this small toy-like gadget. One can save on an average upto Rs 500 every month on incoming airtime by this combination," explains Vig.

Other highlights newly introduced include Multi-lingual Voice mail facility for a nominal fee and stock exchange details like the day's high or low, specific shares you wish to buy or sell, coverage of news, forex rates and even news regarding lotteries.

The various paging services have also introduced the concept of the multi-city linking. Mobilink has an edge with its link up of 10 cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Pune, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Kanpur and Lucknow with the first city for Rs 150 p.m. and each add-on city for Rs 90 p.m.. AirTel had a headstartin linking services but provides this facility only for Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai at Rs 325 p.m. while Pagelink provides it for Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai, Rajkot, Surat, Baroda and Ahmedabad at Rs 130 p.m.conditional to a minimum of three months.

The trend now is to offer pagers as freebies. Apart from this, there are Mobilink and Easy Call who have also tied up with finance companies to provide a pager at zero percent interest for six months.

"With companies busy undercutting, the consumer is the one to benefit. In fact, with the dissolution of the Indian Paging Services Association(IPSA) recently, there are no more any fixed prices. Today you can bargain for a single-liner ranging around Rs 5,000-6,000 and a four-liner coming for about Rs 6,500-Rs 7,000," rounds off Vig.So if you are still incommunicado while you wait for cellulars to come within reach, the pager may be worth a second look.

Here are some of the schemes devised by various paging services in Delhi during the current festive season. This list is not exhaustive

Mobilink

Scheme 1: Pay one and a half year's rent in advance (Rs 2700 + Rs 200 ) and get the numeric pager worth Rs 3000 free.

Saving: Rs 650 at the time of purchase and Rs 3,250 over the period of one and a half years.

Scheme 2: Videocon-Mobilink Offer Purchase specific models of Videocon refrigerator or washing machines and get a numeric pager free. Pay only for subscribtion charges for seven months in advance (Rs 1,050) plus fee for wireless licence (Rs100)

Saving: Rs 2,400 on pager

Scheme 3: Bajaj-Mobilink Offer

Purchase a Bajaj two-wheeler and get a numeric pager free. Pay subscription charges for 9 months in advance (Rs 1,350) plus Rs 100 wireless licence fee

Saving: Rs 2,100 on pager

Scheme 4: AirTel-Mobilink Offer

Get an AirTel subscription and get a numeric pager free. Pay subscription charges for six months in advance(Rs 900) plus Rs 100 wireless licence fee.

Saving: Rs 2,550 on pager

RPG Paging Services

Scheme 1: Whirlpool-RPG Offer

Purchase a whirlpool appliance and get a numeric pager free. Pay one year's rent in advance (Rs 1800) Plus Rs 100 Wireless Licence fee

Saving: Rs 1,650 on the pager

Pagelink service

Scheme 1: A numeric pager free with every one-liner alphanumeric pager purchased. Pay one year's subscription in advance (Rs 1900)

Saving: Rs 1,650

Scheme 2: Godrej-PageLink Offer

Purchase any Godrej product and get a numeric pager free. Pay Rs 1050 for three months includes a registration fee.

Saving: Rs 2,500 on pager

Scheme 3: Texla TV-PageLink Offer

Purchase a Texla TV and get a numeric pager free. Pay Rs 1900 as advance payment for a year.

Saving: Rs 1,650 on the pager