Bharti dips pre-paid rates to Rs75

HYDERABAD: Bharti Mobile Ltd. broke the barrier of Rs 300 for pre-paid coupons with recharge options beginning at as low as Rs 50. Its brand AirTel is aiming for a market expansion of the existing pre-paid subscriber base of 4.5 million. Dubbed 'Aise Azadi Aur Kahan', with this plan the subscriber can top up their pre-paid card with any denomination suiting their budget - be it Rs 75, Rs 120 or Rs 160. It will also allow a facility for subscribers to recharge their cards through SMS via retailers. The facility will be available at 50,000 retail outlets across the country by March 2004.

"The plan also allows the pre-paid customers to recharge from their home network while roaming, for which they need to walk into an Easy Recharge Outlet," said Bharti Mobile sales & marketing (AP) VP, NV Subba Rao. The company has also tied up with handset manufacturers Motorola and Samsung in a bid to further lower the effective entry cost of going mobile, informed Rao. Customers would now have the option to go mobile either at Rs 1,499 or at Rs 1,999 depending on their handset budget.

The company is also entering the PCO market with public SMS kiosks. According to Rao, these kiosks would operate as a coin-driven PCO booth enabling one to send local, national or an international SMS. The company would soon be installing it at various points to gauge market reaction.

(CyberMedia News Service)