Reference Auto

The intense slugfest in the 3G space is likely to pave the way for very affordable 3G services, which may elbow out 2G technology in the near future, and in the latest offering, Tata Teleservices (with its Japanese partner DoCoMo) has unveiled a competitive tariff plan of 66 paise per second.

The telcom major came up with different tariff plans for post-paid as well as pre-paid 3G mobile services ranging from Rs 350 to Rs 2,000, which include monthly minutes as well as data usage.

For instance, if a subscriber opts for a tariff package of Rs 2,000, he or she would get 5,000 minutes voice calls along with data usage of up to 2GB per month.

Tata Tele said the pulse rate would be on a second basis and subscribers would be charged only for the number of seconds called. This is unlike Vodafone and Airtel schemes which had pulse rates based of minutes but had to change to the per second method following Reliance Communications and Tata Tele’s move in that direction. Following this trend, even Bharti Airtel and Vodafone would be forced to opt for the per second pulse rate when they launch their 3G services.

Tata Tele rolled out its 3G services on the occasion of Diwali in nine circles - Karnataka, Kerala, rest of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and UP (west).

Similarly, for 3G data services on computers and laptops, the telecom company has unveiled a package of Rs 2,000 for 15 GB of data usage at a speed of 21.1 Mbps. However, usage beyond 15 GB would be free but at a speed of 256 kbps.

Deepak Gulati, executive president, mobility, Tata Tele, said, “In the Tata DoCoMo tradition of keeping things simple for the consumer, the plans are honest, simple, transparent and easy to understand. Our very approach to 3G pricing has been to take the worry out of telecom.”

He added, the tariffs are designed to offer “total freedom to customers — to stop them from worrying about bills, freeing them to explore the world’s best 3G life offered by Tata DoCoMo.”

After the recent spectrum auction, it was felt that 3G services are unlikely to come cheap, owing to the high bids. But that myth has been put to rest by Tata Teleservices, which has rolled out affordable 3G services, prompting competitors, R Com, Idea, Vodafone and Airtel, among others, to follow suit and tap the over 80 million subscribers market.