MTNL, a leading telecom service provider in India, announced that its existing mobile users in Delhi and Mumbai will have an option to choose its 3G services without official migration and incurring additional cost.
This is a big opportunity to become the number one 3G operator in India’s two metro telecom circles – Delhi and Mumbai. MTNL has 2.65 million wireless users in Delhi and 2.85 million users in Mumbai. If all these users are ready to migrate to 3G, it will be a big boost for the operator.
But majority of these customers do not have smart phones. We expect many of our customers to buy 3G phones in coming months. This will improve our 3G customer base. The existing users are on 3G network now. We are offering 3G at 2G costs. But availability of handsets is a major issue,” said AK Bhargava, executive director, MTNL.
Besides lack of availability of smartphones, MTNL customers are facing many other issues. One main problem is the lack of 3G coverage in Delhi and Mumbai. Though it was the second operator to launch 3G in India, MTNL is still working on offering better content to customers.
MTNL is the only 3G service provider in India offering Truly Unlimited 3G data Plans without any data or speed cap. In January, 2011 the operator introduced Advance Rental Unlimited 3G Data Plan” and with the Plan-4500 further extended till August. The effective cost of Unlimited 3G Data Downloads will be as low as Rs. 750/month.
At a press meet in Delhi, MTNL also unveiled some new plans and schemes for its users. It rolled out -Independence day Recharge Vouchers’ for its -Trump’ prepaid service subscribers (2G and 3G) to celebrate the 64th Independence Day in Delhi telecom circle.
MTNL is not only assuring its customers of keeping the tariffs at the same level, but will continue to take many other measures to further benefit its customers,” Bhargava added.
It also launched new plans, counting home zone plan under which a customer will be offered cheap call charges of 1 paisa per 4 seconds.
It is bonanza time for MTNL subscribers as MTNL said it will not raise its call rates to follow telecom operators like Vodafone, Idea cellular and Bharti Airtel. Bharti Airtel announced tariff hikes of 20 per cent in six circles that contribute 44 per cent of its revenue. Last month,Tata DoCoMo had also announced a rate hike in Tamil Nadu.
By Abhilasha Sharma
editor@telecomlead.com
