Airtel enables 2-way international roam

PUNE: Cellular operator Airtel has launched two-way international roaming and GPRS services for its prepaid customers in Maharashtra and Goa. Airtel has tied up with 100 operators in 60 countries to offer two-way this service. Some of these include Singtel in Singapore, NTT DoCoMo in Japan, Orange in UK, AT&T in USA and Vodafone in Germany.

While making an outgoing call from any of these 100 networks, prepaid customers would be charged Rs 80 per minute for outgoing and Rs 50 per minute for incoming calls. As a special offer, the GPRS and MMS services would be offered free to prepaid customers till July 31, 2004.

Significantly, Maharashtra and Goa circle became the first among the 16 Airtel circles to have launched GPSR, MMS and Masala service for its prepaid customers. Airtel had launched GPRS services for its post-paid customers in Maharashtra and Goa circle almost 40 days ago. The GPRS service enables customers to access the Internet and email in the home network as well as 15 other Airtel circles at speeds of 30 kbps to 64 kbps.

Airtel, Maharashtra and Goa circle COO, Christopher Tobit said that in the post paid segment, there were around 1,500 GPRS users. "We have entered into a tie-up with Nokia wherein customers would receive a prepaid SIM card. We would certainly like promote GPRS enabled handsets," Tobit said.

The subscriber base in Maharashtra and Goa circle crossed the 3.5-lakh mark in March 2004. Airtel plans to add another 100 town to its network this year.

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