Videocon dials rate war in international calls

CHENNAI, INDIA: Videocon Telecommunications Tuesday launched a rate war in the international calls segment, announcing a call rate of one paise per second to the United States and Canada.

The company also announced a call rate of Rs.1.69 per minute for calls made to Singapore and Malaysia and 10 paise per second for calls made to the Gulf region for its subscribers in Tamil Nadu.

"The new tariff rate is to encourage our own subscribers to talk more. It is not a strategy to rope in more new subscribers," Chief Operating Officer Aravind Santhanam told reporters here.

The calling vouchers for US and Canada is priced at Rs.57 and for Singapore and Malaysia is retailed for Rs.22.

According to him, the company has more than one million subscribers in Tamil Nadu and the average revenue per user (ARPU) is Rs.100.

On the infrastructure expansion plans, Santhanam said: "Currently we have around 3,250 cell towers and this will be increased to 5,000 by the end of this fiscal."