Tata Teleservices has decided to approach the telecom regulator for permission to extend its Non-Stop Mobile scheme, beyond its current time limit of three months.The company bagged 8.69 lakh new subscribers in November this year, beating rivals in the GSM industry for the first time in five years, on the back of this new scheme. It is not at all keen to give up on the killer app, which has taken its net subscriber additions to over 10 lakh since October.‘‘Since Non-Stop Mobile is a promotional scheme, current telecom regulation requires that we run it only for three months. However, we are in the process of making it a fully-fledged scheme, and this requires regulatory approval,’’ said Darryl Green, CEO, Tata Teleservices said on Thursday.Non-Stop Mobile, a scheme that keeps pre-paid user’s incoming calls alive for two years with or without recharging, has led Tata Teleservices to an ambitious target of grabbing 9 million mobile subscribers over less than three months. It had 5.6 million in October and GSM operators generally add two to 2.5 million subscribers a month.The Tata scheme has led to speculation that Tata’s per-user monthly revenues will fall dramatically if it runs on, but the company believes it must carry on with the scheme to beat the last-mover disadvantage.Several players also wrote to the Department of Telecom (DoT) recently that Tata’s claims of customer additions are inflated, but Tata officials denied the allegation on Thursday. ‘‘It won’t affect ARPUs as people say,’’ said Green. ‘‘Even if most people don’t make outgoing calls — and that has not happened by far — we make money. And as far as allegations are concerned, I think we are the most transparent operator — let the government see other player’s net subscriptions,’’ he said.
