Have Money, Will Get Cellphone Facilities

Low subscriber revenues force Bharti Cellular and Essar Cellphone to charge for services that, until now, were free

Good times dont last forever. Delhis cellphone users now have to pay for special features that until now were being provided free. Forced by low subscriber revenues, Delhi cellular companies Bharti Cellular and Essar Cellphone have started charging Rs 100 per month each for the caller line identification (CLI) and voice mail service (VMS) facilities.

CLI enables a cellphone user to identify the telephone number of an incoming phone call before answering it, while VMS acts as virtual answering machine on which voice messages can be recorded. Both the features were being offered free to customers since cellular telecom service started in October 1995.

 

The move to charge for the services, say sources, has been prompted by the low average subscriber revenues which range between Rs 1,100 and Rs 1,200 per month. The average usage is still hovering around 160 minutes per month. On an per minute average revenue of Rs 6, this is worth less than Rs 1,000, says a top executive of a cellular company.

A rental charge of Rs 156 takes up the per subscriber revenue to some Rs 1,150. Despite repeated requests to DoT (the department of telecommunications) to allow us to increase the (monthly) rental, there has been no response, says the executive.

In absence of this sop, he says, there is no alternative, but to charge for the features.

Cellular providers in Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta and the other circles (mostly, analogous to states) are expected to follow suit soon. The per subscriber revenue in Mumbai at more than Rs 1,300 per month is higher than Delhi, but the Chennai and Calcutta cellphone companies have been lagging behind on this score.

Cellular companies had initially projected a monthly average usage of 240-250 minutes. Further, they expected a per minute revenue of close to Rs 10, which would have translated into a per month revenue of Rs 2,500. Lower revenues have put paid to these projections and companies are hard-pressed to increase revenues.

Sources expect cellular companies to start charging for similar features and new services when they are introduced. Other features are likely to come with a price tag on the subscribers bill.