Tata Indicom hopes to net 1.5 lakh clients with new service
The Financial Express — December 24, 2004

Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL) is aiming at acquiring 1,50,000 customers within a month of the launch of its push-to-talk (PTT) services across the country. The company on Thursday launched PTT services in the national capital region (NCR) and Rajasthan. This follows the launch of the service in Mumbai and Pune. TTSL is looking at launching this service in South India by the end of this month. “We are targeting at least 1,50,000 users with our PTT service. We are the only telecom service provider that has launched the PTT service in India,” Tata Teleservices president-telecom Amit Bose told newspersons, here.

As an introductory offer, PTT handsets are priced at Rs 5,000 for post-paid customers, where the user can make unlimited calls by paying a flat monthly rental of Rs 99. In addition, the company is offering an EMI scheme for corporate customers, where a corporate can buy a PTT handset by making a down payment of Rs 1,000. The corporate customer will have to pay an EMI of Rs 350 for 12 months, Mr Bose said. Tata Indicom’s PTT service will enable customers to instantly and directly connect with other PTT customers at a low cost. This service will allow the customer to connect to a group of people at the same time and form a closed user group (CUG).

This service is targeted at corporates, small and medium enterprises and youth. Tata Teleservices has partnered with Kyocera for the handset (KX 440) and Qualcomm for the technology solutions. Tata Group has already invested Rs 9,000 crore in its telecom business. The group is further looking at investing Rs 9,000 crore over the next two years in its telecom business which largely include Tata Teleservices and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL).

“From today, PTT users will not have to pay up for STD or roaming. We hope that by next year, the interoperability standards for PTT would be developed following which our customers can even talk to PTT customers on the networks of other service providers,” he said. TTSL will soon launch the PTT services for its pre-paid customers, where a user will be able to make unlimited calls at Rs 3.3 per day. The handset will cost Rs 4,000 for a pre-paid user.