BPL lures youth with Rs 110 connection

BPL Mobile has upped the ante in the telecom tariff war by lowering the entry-level barrier in an industry which already has one of the lowest charges in the world.

The move gains importance as the industry was contemplating hiking call rates, stating that the present schemes were bleeding the industry.

The company is rolling out a new scheme that enables users to go mobile at a meagre Rs 110, compared with the present lowest tariff of Rs 298 in the industry.

The scheme also enables users to stay connected at Rs 3 a day (compared with the existing Rs 10 a day) and validity of up to 99 days, a move that could set precedence for other players.

Confirming this, BPL CEO S Subramaniam said: "We are close to launching what in FMCG terms could be termed as a sachet of shampoo or ketchup for the mobile industry. This will be introduced as a new Rs 10 recharge voucher, 'Mini Validity', mainly targeting at marginal users such as students and youths."

Currently, a customer has to spend a minimum of Rs 199 (recharge coupons) to top up the existing validity. If the validity of the coupon expires, which is usually for a month, it cannot be topped up with any amount, irrespective of the talktime available on the coupon.

Subramaniam said the scheme does not need validity nor talktime, but only requires a BPL Mobile SIM card. A SIM card costs around Rs 99, on which the Mini Validity can be topped up. This will also be cheaper for visitors to the city, compared with roaming on their home numbers.

The scheme also enables customers to convert the balance left in their accounts to validity, meaning if a user has Rs 50 left in the account, it could be used for receiving incoming calls.

According to a telecom analyst, these kinds of schemes have huge penetration potential as there are around 59.11 lakh pre-paid customers across all GSM operators in Mumbai alone. Of this, around 5 lakh users go into grace period (extended validity) every month.