If Aircel is redefining how telecom operators approach value added services and GPRS in India, Tata Docomo is doing its bit to change billing practices.
The joint venture between Tata Teleservices and Japanese telecom major NTT Docomo officially began rollouts (pdf) on June 24th, with a plan to invest $2 billion for its pan-India GSM services. Tata Docomo has so far launched services in Chennai and Tamil Nadu (pdf), Orissa (pdf), Karnataka (pdf), and planned to complete a South India rollout within a week; a 22 circle rollout, except in Jammu & Kashmir and North East is expected to be completed by October 2009, reports Business Standard.
Pricing Differentiation…It’s Been Tried Before
Tata Docomo appears to be banking heavily on its tariff plans – the company is offering a 1 second pulse instead of the usual 1 minute pulse that other telecom operators are offering. This means that consumers are charged on a per second basis, instead of a per minute basis, and end up saving money on unused seconds. A nifty little application “How much can you really save” on Docomo’s website explains how this works. Rs. 0.01/second is a marked change from the Re 1/min and Rs. 0.49/min charges that usually apply.
Now while this plan might sound unique, it isn’t that it hasn’t been tried before: back in 2004, Tata Indicom had launched 1 second pulse plans, which going by their current plans, appears to have been shelved.
Services: I-mode, LBS, m-Commerce To Be Launched
At the launch of Tata Docomo, Toshinari Kunieda, SVP and MD, Global Business Division, NTT DOCOMO had said (pdf) that DOCOMO shall bring to India i-mode, LBS and mobile payment services.
At present, Tata Docomo has launched voice portals, 24-hour music, cricket commentary and voice chat, apart from offering free Missed Call Alerts and VoiceMail. Interestingly, voice based services are also being priced with a per-second-pulse: 24 hour music and voice chat are priced at Rs. 0.02/second. Caller Tune (CRBT) search service ‘Genie’ is also being priced at Rs. 0.02/second. This is a marked change, again, from the per minute pricing, and can offer consumers cheaper options.
Our Take
With the proliferation of telecom operators in various metro circles continuing, the likely outcome will be a decrease in rates, but we think these are likely to impact low ARPU users, and perhaps increase churn. The key issue among high ARPU users will be network coverage; they would prefer that a call go through, or not be disconnected, than save Rs. 0.5-Re.1 on a call. At the same time, since operators have so far been focused on the “land-grab” of subscribers, the growth in the suscriber base is likely to be more distributed. We wonder if we’ll eventually see a trend of people in metros keeping multiple handsets for different services. In which case, a dual-sim handset would help.
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8 Comments until now.
If they bring in I-mode with Japan like rev shares, wouldn't that delight us all !
I think customers will be more concerned about total outlay a per second billing I am sure will not make significant difference in that unless and until users adapt to the it like they have with Lifetime incoming phones ( missed calls is the highest in the world ). The person who has to have that conversation will have that long conversation I do not think they will change that behaviour . The person who is a low ARPU pay once in ten months customer or keep very little recharge value in the phone and get the other person to pay has already been addressed by the lifetime free incoming market.
In fact Tata had in their original CDMA avataar launched with 10 second billing thinking that would make a difference but obviously nothing did , guess some lessons are just not learnt.
It is really a nice thing to have Tata docomo in these hard days and can save time and money
The call rates r really good guys! But,what about the network…its absolutely disgusting.just go through this once…
http://iwiz-vicky.blogspot.com/2009/07/user-revie...
well crafted article which is adequately equipped with information…i think the per sec billing is a great idea…but more importantly some other features, which we as consumer ignore otherwise are the various value services. I have an airtel, and i end up paying a bomb just to check the missed call numbers….!
@ Ria – when airtel started their operations in india, their network was horrible, and it took a long time for them to improve! but i get the gist of your point. since its a TATA brand, i am willing to give it some more time…i think they have just launched themselves in india…lets see how much do they invest in building up their infra (putting towers) and improving their network…
Lets not forget they have DOCOMO behind their back….so in coming years, they could well be the undisputed leaders in network clarity (purely because of their Japanese partners)…
i agree with roshan. the free missed call alerts is gr8!
but is this per second thingy going to stay for ever or its just a promotional offer? any clalrity on it?…
the new tariff is gud frm tata, but i doubt tatas network, its not that gud, had experienced that. so to believe in any change is only docomo, the japanese partner, hope bcoz of them there wont be any network issues, and i believe without good network the tariffs doesnt get attracted, it will disgusting only. all wishes to the initiative TATA DOCOMO, its tune is wonderful…ALL THE BEST TATA DOCOMO, have a gud start and be the winner in the hearts of people, not a looser.
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