Unitech Wireless to offer more schemes post-Christmas

CHENNAI - Mobile telephony operator Unitech Wireless that has launched services under the Uninor brand across seven circles with uniform tariff plans, may offer more options post-Christmas, said a senior company official here Thursday.

“Based on the market feedback we get starting tomorrow, we may offer other schemes,” said Unitech Wireless (Tamil Nadu) managing director Stein Erik Vellan.

“To start with, we have launched the services in seven circles with two uniform tariff plans,” Vellan told IANS after the launch of the company’s services in Tamil Nadu.

The company is offering two schemes — Talkmore (local calls at 29 paise per minute, STD at 49 paise per minute with a minimum charge of 39 paise), and Callmore (local calls at 29 paise per minute, STD at 49 paise per minute and a daily rental of Rs.2).

According to Vellan, the two prepaid tariff plans with a call charge and call set up charge will not confuse the subscribers.

“The per second billing has lost its sheen. The ARPU (average revenue per user) of telephone companies are going down. For a large number of users, current prices, including per second pricing are in reality much more expensive,” he said.

For those who make a minimum of four calls per day, Unitech Wireless will work out economical, Vellan argued.

The company will charge 99 paise per SMS and plans to offer value added services (VAS) some time next year.

On the marketing strategy, he said there were five company-owned retail outlets, 164 distributors and 45,000 points of sale across the Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The company has 3,125 base stations, of which 60 percent are shared and the remaining, which are anchor stations, have been outsourced.

–Indo Asian News Service