| Aimed at the rural market, Airtel plans to bring 60 new towns in the north Maharashtra under its network by December 2006. |
| "With an aim to overcome language barriers and need of typing messages, we have launched a voice SMS service - 'Bubble Talk' in north Maharashtra. Within the 15 days after an introduction of this voice SMS service in the Maharashtra and Goa circles, the number of users using this service has reached 1.5 lakh," said Yatish Meharotra, vice-president, sales and marketing, Bharati Airtel. |
| "The newly launched Bubble Talk service will enable our customers to express messages in their own voice and languages directly. The service is very convenient, as it works on all handsets and does away with compatibility concerns for sending messages in different languages and keyboard comfort. The service is nominally charged 75 paise per minute for sending a bubble message. Initially, voice SMS call duration is up to 30 seconds. The voice SMS call duration will be doubled in the second phase, shortly," he said. |
| He added, "In India, mobile penetration in the rural area is only 4 per cent, compared with 36 per cent in the urban area. Right now, our network is in 120 towns in north Maharashtra and we are planning to spread our network in another 60 towns with population more than 10,000, by December 2007. |
| Till date, Airtel has 17 lakh customers in the Maharashtra and Goa circles, with its network in 520 towns and locations, 12 highways and over 1,900. |
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