Bharti launches basic services in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Bharti Telenet has launched its basic services in Delhi under the

brand Touchtel. With a 24x7 customer-care service center the service is

available in many areas of South Delhi with immediate effect. The company has

reportedly signed up 700-800 odd customers for its basic service, which can go

live any day. The tariff will be the same as MTNL's existing rates of Rs 1.20

per call with a monthly rental of Rs 250. There would be an initial installation

charge of Rs 1000 to the customer and the billing cycle would be monthly.

The company would provide seven-digit numbers starting with 85 and 86.

Customers signing up for Touchtel will be given 90 days free Internet access.

The company plans to offer a host of value-added services but the different

product packages has not been worked out in details yet. The company estimates

that it would have a ratio of 40:60 percent of its lines going to the commercial

versus the residential areas.

Bharti Telenet chairman and group managing director, Sunil Bharti Mittal

said, "We have launched the service within a span of four months from the

grant of license for the Delhi circle. We also expect to launch our service in

the other two circles within a few weeks time."

Delhi circle CEO, Rohtash Mal explained how he plans to wean existing MTNL

customers. According to him, there is the possibility of initial reluctance of

customers to move over to a new service provider. "What we shall sell them

is a promise. And we are confident we can follow it up with superior service. We

can provide them with a voice mail service informing users about the change in

number. We aim to make life easier for our customers by taking care of all their

requirements, getting bill payments done at the doorstep and superior network

quality," he said.

A second scenario is the experience of the company in places like Gurgaon

where there has been a pent-up demand for basic service and where the growth of

its customer acquisition has been much higher than the market growth. On an

average, Touchtel is estimated to add 100-150 customers each day and sometimes

the number goes up to as high as 500-600 per day. By the end of this fiscal, the

company expects to rope in as many as 10,000 customers in Gurgaon.

Bharti has installed a GIS-based network which not only informs about the

location of each and every customer but can also help pre-empt network fault by

analyzing the complaint pattern.

Touchtel has installed five exclusive showrooms to cater to the needs of

customers requirements. This number would be increased to 12 by the end of this

year. In addition to this, the company would appoint franchisees to help the

company in their customer acquisition drive. The corporate clients would however

be handled by the Touchtel team directly.