Iridium India slashes prices

MUMBAI, JUNE 28: Satellite telephony major Iridium India Telecom Limited IITL today announced a 50 per cent cut in prices of the handse...

MUMBAI, JUNE 28: Satellite telephony major Iridium India Telecom Limited IITL today announced a 50 per cent cut in prices of the handsets and airtime charges to increase its market reach in a bid to get out the present financial problems.

As per the new pricing, a Motorola hand-set bundled with a call alert device would be available for Rs 99,000, a 50 per cent reduction from its earlier cost of 1.95 lakh, a company release said here today. In its effort to reduce and simplify its call rate structure, IITL has lowered its airtime charges for domestic satellite calls from Rs 195 per minute to Rs 150, it said.

They have also announced that the customised tariff package options to further reduce the airtime cahrge to as low as Rs 60. Currently the range of IITL airtime offer is between Rs 195-rs75.

For international calls, IITL has simplified the original 15 zone pricing structure and would now charge a flat rate of Rs 170 per minute. The company also waived the subscription fee of Rs 2,750 till the endof this year, IITL said adding that the new tariff would be effective from July one.

The calls will be now onwards metred in 10-second increments instead of current one minute billing which would significantly reduce bills for sub-minute calls. The new rates are in line with Iridium8217;s new global marketing strategy to drive sales worldwide.

quot;Iridium India8217;s marketing strategy to exclusively cater to the vertical/industrial market much before commercialisation of service standards reinforced with this global repositioning,quot; Jayadev Raja, special advisor IITL said.

Iridium, the first company to enter global satellite communication business with hand-held telephones last year, has been facing financial problems as the demand for satellite phones is nowhere near initial projections. Iridium India is a joint venture between a consortium of Indian financial institutions and the network management group of Motorola Inc, USA.