Caltiger restricts free service to 5 cities

BANGALORE: India's only free Internet Service Provider (ISP) Caltiger that

was offering free Internet service to 22 cities earlier, is restricting it to

only 5 cities in India, henceforth. The four metros and Bangalore will only

enjoy the free service. The rest of the 17 cities in India will be curtailed to

a paid Internet service.

Caltiger will however be available at Rs 150 per month, probably the cheapest

in the country.

Reasoning the decision, Caltiger.com senior vice president sales and

marketing Raja Mitra said, "We had sketched out a business plan banking on online

advertisement, where the market has failed badly, letting us down too in the

process. Most of the existing advertisers are targeting the metro audience and

so we have retained the free service offering to the metros. However we are

introducing a new scheme called, Caltiger.com Gold, a premium service in the

other cities. The value also has been made as affordable as possible, very

competitive against existing ISPs."

The company is also planning to expand its network to 500 cities in the

country, taking its premium service to these cities. As for the revenue flow,

"We will be launching a host of value added services along with our premium

services which will all be paid. We would also take steps to increase our

corporate customer base, which is our primary revenue provider. Now a steady

flow of income is needed as we have invested heavily in infrastructure across

the country and we need keep it operational."

According to its website, www.caltiger.com

, its subscriber count as of today is 7,21,321. The company also offers a fax

service, Calfax.com, Internet Data Center Solutions, PatriotCorp.com, Unified

messaging services, Calvox.com among other services.