Your cell will get cheaper, 1st call today

So, consumers can look forward to some bundling of services like: make more STD calls, get cheaper airtime or bills above a certain level get free roaming and discounted airtime. Bundling different telephone services with your normal cell services will be the marketing buzzword for most cell brands.

Major cellular players, such as Airtel, Idea, Hutch, BPL and Spice amongst others, are expected to make a joint announcement tomorrow. And this will be the first in a series of such announcements being scheduled over the next few weeks by the cellphone companies.

These operators have deicded that till the launch of full-fledged services on WLL phones by companies like Reliance and Tatas, they would announce new sops virtually every second week. It’s a strategy to prevent existing subscribers from moving over to the new services under the WLL umbrella. The first such package will be unveiled tomorrow with the new lower tariffs being applicable by mid-January.

In the future, cuts in airtime rates and rentals on cellphones could also be on the cards. Says Rajeev Chandrasekhar, chairman of BPL Mobile and current chief of the Cellular Operators’ Association of India:

‘‘The question is not whether we can afford to give these discounts or not; till such time that the regulator and Government refuse to address the problem of non-level playing field, we have to fight to retain our customers.

After all, the matter is still under judicial review after the Supreme Court sent it back to the telecom dispute settlement panel, and we have to make sure that till this review is over, there is no churning of subscribers.’’

Speaking to The Indian Express, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Bharti Group with 26 per cent of the cellular market under the Airtel brand of cellular services, said the price announcements would carry on till around April.

‘‘While we are hoping we too can give our customers free incoming calls on their phones, we hope the issue of access charge of Rs 1.20 paid by cellular subscribers for calling landlines or WLL mobiles will be resolved since such charges are not applicable to WLL or landline subscribers,’’ he said.

Cellphone companies are afraid that ‘‘subscribers may move away because of tariff advantages which is also there only because of differential licence regime favouring WLL operators.’’

This comes in the wake of the launch of limited mobility services by Reliance recently with three schemes, including a three-year unique Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer offer at Rs 3000, across 673 towns and cities in the country which allows the cheapest calls on any phone at 40 paise per minute or 10 paise for 15-second calls.

Reliance will commence demonstrations of its service on January 15 and bookings by February. Tatas have also launched WLL-mobility services in Delhi recently, offering packages like ‘Friends 599’ package, where the company does not charge any monthly rental on a monthly commitment of Rs 599 and offers 400 free local calls.

Despite the price advantage, the biggest flaw in WLL services so far is that you cannot make calls to cellphones as there is no ‘‘interconnectivity’’ between these phones.