Hutch to invest Rs 200 cr in Chennai

CHENNAI: Hutchison Essar, which completed one year of its cellular service in Chennai, has announced an investment of Rs 200 crore on the cellular network to enhance its network coverage and quality.

The investment would enable the fourth cellular operator in the city to have 208 cell sites across the city by the end of this year. With this the company claims to have put up the largest cellular network in Chennai. Apart from this, it has also wired up over 100 key buildings in Chennai to provide them with in-building solutions.

Sandip Das, South CEO, Hutchinson Essar, said, 'I believe with our massive network investment of building the largest network in Chennai, we have taken a big step in this direction. We could roll out this network in record's time of 12 months. In future, we plan to set up more cell sites in the city.'

Along with the enhanced network, Hutch also unveiled some new products. One of them was Balance Linked rate on Hutch Prepaid, where the customer can pay rates as low as Rs 1.40 per minute. 'The higher the recharge, the lower the cost,' added Das. The customer is charged flexibly according to the remaining balance on his card - the more the balance the lesser the rate.

Another scheme is Pick your five numbers on Hutch prepaid, whereby the customer can choose five of his most frequently dialed local numbers (across GSM and landline). The customer would be charged Re one per day per number chosen.

Hutch4help service on Postpaid and Prepaid cards was also launched. Here the customer needs to dial 4 followed by the name of the required service. For example, to dial a florist he has to dial "4Florist." Currently there are nine services - fire, police, pizza, chemist, blood bank, hospital, florist, ambulance and call taxi.

(Cyber News Service)