Reliance Communications introduce 10-yr incoming free product

Mumbai, Apr 2 (UNI) Reliance Infocomm Limited, a division under process of merging into Reliance Communications Ventures Limited (RCoVL), today announced a 10-year incoming free product for pre-paid cellular customers, as against the life-time free products of several other cellular operators who have an operating licence validity upto eight years.

''This is a defined time-bound product with wider choice at cheaper rate of Rs 795,'' said S P Shukla, President of Wireless division of Reliance Infocomm.

Briefing reporters here today, Mr Shukla said that the scheme was in compliance with the recent notification of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), bringing more transparency in lifetime product offering which lacks clarity.

He said the ''lifetime'' product can not exceed beyond the license period and, therefore, must mention the validity of the license period of the cellular operators. The concept of lifetime validity may also mean an indefinite period.

In its notification dated March 21, TRAI had said it continued to hold the view that titles of tariff plans and period of product validity were ''misleading in nature and have the potential to mislead the subscribers.'' The authority further felt that there was a need to protect the interest of the subscribers in case the tariff and other declared features of the tariff plan with longer validity, including lifetime plans, were changed to cause inconvenience to the customers particularly when the future cost structure of cellular operators are unpredictable.

Mr Shukla said there are operators offering lifetime incoming free calls for mobile customers at around Rs 990, while their license validity is only for eight years (upto 2014). In case of Reliance Infocomm, the lifetime product at Rs 995 is valid upto 2021 (15 years).

He said the subscriber base of Reliance Infocomm has doubled to almost 21 million in 2005-06 and there was a sizeable market for the defined 10-year incoming free call facility, which is almost a lifetime validity product with superior value.

''Almost 30 per cent of the total subscriber base has opted for such lifetime incoming free product,'' Mr Shukla said.

Besides the current lifetime incoming free product for 15 years, the new product for 10-year would need a top-up micro-rechanges starting from Rs 10 to keep the software active and also having an outgoing call rates at Rs 1.99 for a local call and Rs 2.99 for all other calls in India, he added.

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