Hutchison to transfer Punjab subscribers to Punwire

MUMBAI, Oct 23: Hutchison Max Telecom, a major player in the paging and cellular industry, on Thursday said it would transfer all the sub...

MUMBAI, Oct 23: Hutchison Max Telecom, a major player in the paging and cellular industry, on Thursday said it would transfer all the subscribers in the Punjab circle to Punwire. The paging services in Ludhiana and Chandigarh, which are outside the Punjab licence, will remain unaffected, the company said in a release.

The transfer will be effective from October 31 and will apply only to Max Page’s Punjab state licence, chief operating officer Sandip Das said in the release. Services in the seven cities for which the company holds licences other than Punjab – Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune and Vadodara – will continue to be provided by Max Page.

According to Das, it was not viable for two operators to co-exist and continue services in the Punjab circle where the growth in subscribers has been far below expectations. Under the terms of the agreement, all Max Page subscribers in the Punjab circle would automatically be transferred to Punwire.

"We are in a situation today where60 per cent to 70 per cent of revenues in telecom service businesses are going to the government in one form or another, a major component of which is the licence fee. In this context, it is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain business in Punjab where the subscriber ramp-up is very low and basic paging infrastructure has been set up in various cities," Das said.

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