Infocomm, Idea join 'validity war'

The price war in the mobile telephony segment shows no signs of ending. Taking a cue from GSM operators Airtel and Hutch and its CDMA rival Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL), the Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Infocomm today launched a lifetime pre-paid voucher of Rs 995.

The new voucher is being rolled out as an electronic-recharge card, has a pre-loaded talktime of Rs 50 and enables users to receive incoming calls for lifetime on a single recharge.

MTNL and Idea also followed suit today. While MTNL launched a new card "� Jeevan Sathi for Rs 900 "� with a lifelong validity, Idea introduced a lifelong prepaid card for Rs 995.

The Anil Ambani Dhirubhai Enterprises (ADAE) group company is also offering an SMS bonanza with its 'Marathon SMS Pack'. The scheme allows a subscriber to send 18,000 short messages over a six-month period, after charging with a Rs 180 coupon.

According to Reliance Infocomm President (Wireless) S P Shukla, "Our subscribers will receive incoming calls for a lifetime, even as it enables them to choose a tariff of their choice for outgoing calls. This is a significant benefit offered by Reliance, since we believe that a subscribers needs charge change over a period and binding him to a particular tariff plan for a lifetime would not have been customer-friendly".

The validity war (an attempt to garner the maximum number of entry-level subscribers by offering the longest validity period) was started by TTSL, with the company launching its 'Tata Indicom Non-Stop Mobile' on October 14. The scheme had permitted users to receive free incoming calls for a two-year period.

TTSL had launched the scheme bundled with a range of handsets, allowed customers to receive free incoming calls for two years. It also had no fixed monthly commitment and subscribers were free to recharge with a voucher of their choice, starting at Rs 50.

Idea Cellular followed suit with the rolling our of two 'I-Power pre-paid vouchers', one with a three-year validity for Rs 2,999 and the other with a two-year validity for Rs 1,199, while MTNL also launched three new pre-paid cards, offering three-year (Rs 2,400), two-year (Rs 2,000) and one-year (Rs 900) validity with limited talk-time.

Airtel also announced the country's first lifetime validity pre-paid voucher. The Bharti Tele-Ventures company introduced a Rs 999 card, on which a user can receive free incoming calls for a lifetime.

Close on the heels, Hutch also launched a life-time validity scheme - 'Chalta Rahe' "� for its pre-paid subscribers at Rs 999.