Reliance kicks off prepaid push

Reliance Infocomm announced launch of its pre-paid services by bundling handset cost with talk time, thereby effectively bringing down the entry cost for the customer.

The pre-paid scheme, to be operational from February 11, includes customers getting free recharge vouchers worth nearly the cost of a pre-paid handset that they buy. Reliance Infocomm introduced six new handsets under the pre-paid scheme.

A customer can buy a Motorola C 131 handset for Rs 3,500 and get free pre-paid connection with 10 recharge vouchers totally worth Rs 3,240.

The vouchers will be valid for six months with an additional six month grace period. During this grace period the subscriber will be able to receive incoming calls and SMS without recharging the account.

The recharge denominations will be Rs 324, Rs 580 and Rs 1,080. As per the pre-paid scheme, local, intra and inter circle calls from Reliance IndiaMobile to another mobile for a distance of less than 50 km will cost Rs 2.40 per minute while all inter-circle calls of above 50 km will cost Rs 2.99 per minute.

All local calls, intra-circle calls and inter-circle calls of less than 200 km from Reliance IndiaMobile to a fixed phone have a flat Rs 2.99 per minute rate and all inter-circle calls of above 200 km have flat rate of Rs 3.99 per minute.

The company is offering free roaming across the country. The pre-paid subscriber will be charged Re 1 for local SMS, Rs 2 per inter-circle SMS and Rs 3 for international SMS.

With the entry into the pre-paid segment, Reliance Infocomm is eyeing the growing pre-paid market in the country. On an average, 80 per cent of the new additions have been in the pre-paid segment.

Atul Jhamb, head-Mumbai & Maharashtra, Reliance Infocomm said, "within three months of the launch we expect an incremental growth of at least 40-50 per cent in the mobile market."

Jhamb pointed out that with the entry of Reliance IndiaMobile the mobile market has witnessed a quantum jump of 165 per cent in 2003 as against 100 per cent in the previous year.

Reacting to the Reliance's tariffs in the pre-paid segment, Manoj Kohli President Mobility, Bharti Televentures said "We assure our subscribers that we would be offering competitive rates in the market. We will announce our strategy within a day or two, if any corrective measures needs to be taken. But our focus would be on increasing the value and choice for customers and not lock him up."

Jhamb said that "we are also working on a scheme where the existing post-paid subscriber of Reliance IndiaMobile can migrate to pre-paid segment. We will make an announcement within the next 15-20 days." Reliance Infocomm expects same success as it witnessed in the launch of its Monsoon Hungama scheme where it brought down the entry cost of the handset to Rs 501.

Post-Monsoon Hungama, Reliance Infocomm's market share stood at 21 per cent (end- November 2003), according to Jhamb.