Tata Indicom unveils New Avatar of 'Pay Per Call' plan

Furthermore, it is extremely easy for customers to migrate to the new PPC Plan without any additional fee or charges, to avail various benefits.    

 Tata Indicom, the CDMA brand of Tata Teleservices Limited(TTL), has launched an entirely new avatar of ‘Pay Per Call’ (PPC) for its pre-paid customers across circles. This plan offers multiple benefits to customers such as reduced overall cost of the tariff with no daily rentals and standard calling rates. Furthermore, it is extremely easy for customers to migrate to the new PPC Plan without any additional fee or charges, to avail various benefits.   

“Our pay-per-call plan received a phenomenal response from the customers across the circles. As a concept, it removed the clutter and confusion around a host of complex rate plans and offered customers the freedom to talk at a highly cost effective “flat” rate without any intricacy. However, it was time for us to further innovate and offer a more lucrative plan that effectively reduces the overall cost incurred by the customers. Therefore, this new plan without any daily rental offers more value without burning a hole in their pockets,” Sanjeev Khera Regional Head- South Hub & Chief Operating Officer for Karnataka Circle, Tata Indicom said.

Top Ten Telecom Companies in India

India is the fastest emerging mobile phone market in the world. To cater to this rising sector, many foreign telephone companies are coming here to make their presence felt in the cutthroat handset market. Additionally, telecom companies are also gearing up as the industry is generating large amount of investments for the country. In fact, the number of telephone subscriber base in India touched 671.69 million as on June 30, 2010 from 653.92 million in May 2010, says the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

Our list of top 10 telecom companies in India

Bharti Airtel: A recent survey by Voice and Data (CyberMedia group journal) indicated that Bharti Airtel is India’s top mobile phone operator for the 2009-10 period with fiscal revenues of Rs. 38, 800 crore (Rs. 388 billion). Led by Sunil Bharti Mittal, the company is divided into 4 strategic business arms – mobile, telemedia, enterprise and digital TV.

BSNL: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited reported a drop of 14% this year in revenue & posted a total of Rs. 30, 240 crore (Rs. 302.4 billion) as earnings. It secures top spot as the largest wireline service provider in the country with over 71.68 million subscribers. Since Feb 2010, BSNL earned Rs. 6 crore on its 2G connections and 9, 73, 378 for 3G connections.

Vodafone Essar: Vodafone Group, the Indian subsidiary of Vodafone Essar, recorded a profit boost of 13.7% and emerged as the third largest telecom player with revenue collections of Rs. 23, 200 crore (Rs. 232 billion). Since its unremarkable beginnings in 1994, the company has come a long way in spreading its services to over 106.34 million Indian users.

Reliance: Anil Ambani’s now rebranded ‘Reliance’ (better known as RCOM too) is India’s largest private sector information and communications company with a sizeable 100 million subscribers. The giant recently reported a negative growth of 3.5% with revenue of Rs. 22, 130 crore (Rs. 221.3 billion).

Idea Cellular: With revenue of Rs. 11, 390 crore (Rs. 113.9 billion), Idea Cellular, Aditya Birla Group’s flagship company maintains its spot as one of the leading service provider in the country. Headed by Kumar Mangalam Birla, Idea has around 67 million subscribers with a pan-India presence. It was also the first cellular service provider to offer General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) & Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) in India.

Tata Communications: Even though it’s placed on number 6 slot, the company holds leadership position in emerging markets. It reported total revenue of Rs. 11, 000 crore (Rs. 110 billion) last fiscal but analysts say that Tata’s potential for this year is huge. The Tata Global Network comprises of one of the most advanced and largest submarine cable networks, a Tier-1 IP network.

Tata Teleservices: The company operates under 5 brands – Tata Indicom (CDMA services), Tata DOCOMO (GSM services), Virgin Mobile, Tata Walky (for fixed wireless phones) and Tata Photon (for wireless mobile broadband access) & is one of the 96 companies of the Tata Group to have its network in 20 circles. With revenue of Rs. 6, 900 crore (Rs. 69 million), Tata Teleservices leads the Tata Group’s presence in the telecom sector.

Aircel: With the highest growth record of 37.2% in 2009-10, Aircel is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Sindya Securities Investments Private Limited. Commencing operations in 1999, it became the leading mobile operator in Tamil Nadu, Assam and North Eastern provinces speedily.

MTNL: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) has a customer base of 8.06 million in Delhi and Mumbai and the government holds a 56.25% stake in the company. Managed by Mr. Kuldip Singh (Chairman and MD), the company offers state-of-the art telephone services and has more than 9, 00, 000 GSM mobile connections.

TTML: Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited (TTML) earned revenues worth Rs. 2, 300 crore (Rs. 23 billion) helping it to preserve its place in this list. TTML leads its parent company Tata Group in the telecom circles of Maharashtra (Mumbai) & Goa. With 6 lakh subscribers today, it started operations in 1998 and now prides itself as the largest wireline base in Maharashtra among all private operators.

Mobile phone subscribers in India rises to 811.59 million

India’s mobile phone subscribers base has touched 811.59 million in March with the addition of 20.21 million connections, official data shows.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the wireless user base grew 2.55 percent, from 791.38 million in February.

While the share of urban subscribers declined to 66.30 percent from 66.36 percent, the share of rural subscribers increased from 33.64 percent to 33.70 percent, the report said Friday.

With this, the total number of telephone subscriber base touched 846.32 million, registering a growth of 2.43 percent.

Overall teledensity in India reached 70.89.

However, according to the report, of the total 811.59 million wireless subscribers in March, only 573.97 million subscribers were active subscribers on the date of peak visitor location register (VLR).

VLR is a temporary database of the subscribers who have roamed into the particular area, which it serves. Each base station in the network is served by exactly one VLR, hence a subscriber cannot be present in more than one VLR at a time.

The growth in this category was led by Vodafone, which added 3.65 million users to take its subscriber base to 134.57 million users.

Reliance Communications followed next with an addition of 3.54 million new subscribers, taking its subscriber base to 135.72 million.

Telecom giant Bharti airtel added 3.2 million subscribers to take its total number of customers to 162.2 million.

Idea Cellular added 2.7 million subscribers, increasing its subscribers count to 89.5 million while Uninor added 1.21 million subscribers to have 22.79 million subscribers.

According to the data, the broadband subscriber base grew 3.51 percent from 11.47 million in February to 11.87 million in March 2011. However, the wireline segment declined marginally from 34.87 million in February to 34.73 million at the end of March. 

Tata Communications inaugurated its Second International Gateway in Sri Lanka

TATA Communications Lanka Ltd inaugurated its second International Gateway in Sri Lanka at the emerging IT Park, Orion City. Strengthening its seven-year presence in the country, the new facility will further strengthen the reliability and stability of its services to both operators and enterprise customers. The second International Gateway is a part of a strategy to offer cutting-edge IP-leveraged solutions enabled by the company’s superior global infrastructure and leadership in emerging markets. “In the last seven years we have grown substantially, thanks to our customers and their trust in us. We thought it fit to have greater redundancy for the existing primary POP in Taj Samudra and to provide an independent back-haul, for extending reliable and stable services,” explained Mr. V. Ravi Sankar, CEO, TATA Communications Lanka regarding the objective of the new venture. “This will enable our customers to offer higher uptime and better service levels to their end customers, thereby becoming more competitive in the International business environment.” Acknowledging the support of the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (“TRCSL”) and Board of Investment (“BoI”), Mr. Ravi Sankar said that both these organizations, under the respective leadership of Mr. Anusha Palpita and Mr. J.D. Bandaranayake, are forward-looking and very helpful. “The second PoP not only strengthens stability, but also improves the reliability of the services offered to operators and enterprises, so that they receive an enhanced service experience,” said Mr. S. K. Gupta, Chairman, TATA Communications Lanka. “Through a very reliable network that connects customers globally, our customers can be confident, and the country at large will benefit,” he added. With the first phase of the venture underway, the total investment proposed is LKR 70 million.
The new gateway was inaugurated by the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, Mr. Ashok K. Kantha, in the presence of distinguished guests and other delegates. Mr. Anusha Palpita, Director General, TRCSL, made the first formal IDD call through the new International Gateway to the Group CEO and MD of TATA Communications Limited, Mr. Vinod Kumar. TATA Communications Lanka Ltd is a subsidiary of TATA Communications Limited, a TATA Group company and one of the largest telecommunications service providers in the world. Providing services to customers in Sri Lanka, TATA Communications Lanka has unrestricted access to the global network and infrastructure of TATA Communications Limited.