Ever heard of a short messaging service (SMS) and e-mail facilities on your fixed-line phones? Bharti Teletech, the handset manufacturing arm of the Bharti group, is set to unveil landline phones with e-mail facilities in the next four months and SMS features thereafter.
The group has already commenced test marketing its product in select markets across the country. The fixed-line phones with e-mail facility (for which the phones will have a key board and certain additional features) is part of the company's initiative to manufacture and unveil high-end phones in India. At present, high-end phones contributes around 10 per cent to the Rs 150 crore Bharti Teletech.
Subsequent to the introduction of this high-end telephones, the customers will no longer need a personal computer at home for receiving e-mails. But the drawback of the phone is that the user will not be able to get graphics or pictures.
The company will soon arrive at a price for these handsets. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, vice-chairman and managing director of Bharti Enterprises, said, "We are ready to unveil fixed-line phones in the next three-four months. The price will be fixed soon."
At present, no Indian company is producing telephones which offer e-mail facilities and SMS for fixed-line. But a cellular user can send and receive e-mails on his/her GSM handset.
Land-line phones with SMS features are also under development at the company's research and development centre. Currently, SMS is the buzzword among cellular users across the country. With Re 1 cost for a SMS, a cellular subscriber any can send messages.
However, if the customer wants to use SMS/e-mail featured land-lines, it will take some time as the present main land-line service operators such as Mahanagar Telephone Nigam and Bharat Sanchar Nigam do not have such infrastructure. "If these companies want to introduce some value addition, they need to spend on some incremental infrastructure facilities," Mittal added.
The Rs 150 crore Bharti Teletech is targeting sales of 10 million phones by 2007 from the present 4 million. At present, the company has an installed capacity of 5 million phones at its three factories, but it will increase the capacity by outsourcing.
