RPG Cellular, one of the two cellular operators in the Chennai circle, has put in abeyance its plan to offer a 17 per cent stake in the company to a strategic investor. The company will also be taking a final decision on a tie-up for ILD (international long distance) and NLD (national long distance) services by the end of the next quarter.
RPG Cellular will also be very soon reducing tariffs for the hugely popular SMS (short messaging system) service.
RPG at present has an agreement with VSNL for ILD and with Bharti and BSNL for NLD services. RPG Cellular one of the two cellular operators in the country, apart from Bharti to operate a profitable cellular circle is also investing about Rs 50 crore in infrastructure expansion.
RPG Cellular, Managing Director, Dilip R. Mehta, told newspersons that the company was evaluating entering into agreements for ILD and NLD on a revenue sharing basis.
"Single operators have the freedom to choose and the ILD or NLD operator who gives us the best revenue sharing arrangement will get our share of business". Reliance, Tata-VSNL, Sify, and the Bharti Group have all got permission to offer ILD and NLD services in the country.
On the move to put in abeyance to offer a 17 per cent stake to a strategic investor he said that the company was waiting for the regulatory issues to be clarified by TRAI and then a final decision would be taken. RPG Cellular he said was poised to end this year with a net profit of about Rs 20 crore on a turnover of Rs 160 crore.
RPG Cellular, Mehta said was witnessing SMS traffic of about 2 million messages every month. "To ensure that the SMS service becomes more popular we will be reducing the rates on our SMS service in the next few days" Mehta said. At the present moment, cellular operators across the country, charge subscribers at the average rate of about Rs 1.50 for every SMS message sent.
