After launching in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala and Punjab last week, T24 service has now been introduced in Mumbai and Rest of Maharashtra telecom circles.

T24, a joint venture of Tata Teleservices and Future Group, offers discounts on mobile services for people shopping at Future Group outlet and shopping vouchers when people buy recharge vouchers.

T24 services are already available in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

Customers will be rewarded with free talk-time for every purchase above Rs 350 made at any of the Future Group shopping outlets.

For example, a T24 customer buying products worth Rs 3,001 at Pantaloons or Central will stand to gain Rs 150 worth of free talk-time. Also, a customer spending Rs 2,001 in Big Bazaar will gain Rs 84 worth of free talk-time for every purchase.

T24 mobile telephony service has been progressively rolled out across the country over the last many months, through Future Group’s retail networks in over 76 cities and 65 rural destinations.

Customers visiting Future Group retail chains like Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar, Pantaloons, Central, Brand Factory, Home Town, eZone and Aadhar, among others, will be offered this exclusive mobile connection and tariff plan, wherein they will get free talk-time based on their purchase at these stores.

Customers also get facility of recharging their T24 mobile at these stores and also from any Tata Docomo retailer. Customers will also be rewarded with special deals and promotions at Future Group retail outlets every time they buy paid recharge.

The delay in rolling out so late in such an important market stems from the fact that Docomo received spectrum Mumbai very late. It is yet to receive spectrum in Delhi, which is one of the most important city for future group.

We just celebrated International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate the social, economic and political achievements of women.

Back in 1911, when the day was first observed, it was also a day of protest, to campaign for the right to work, for the vote, equal pay, education and to end discrimination. While the struggle for all this still continues in many parts of the world, a new addition in the demand should be ‘Right to mobile phone’.

Mobile phones are creating a similar impact as the voting rights that were being demanded a 100 year ago.

A recent research from the mWomen campaign, supported by Nokia, discovered that there are strong links between women’s wellbeing and access to a mobile phone.

93 per cent of women reported feeling safer and 85 per cent felt more independent because of their mobile phone.

Even financially, 41 per cent of women reported increased income and professional opportunities once they owned a mobile phone.

Women in rural areas and lower income brackets stand to benefit the most from access to mobiles as it provides them access not just to communication but also to a world of information thanks to the many services available these days — be it in the field of education, farming or marketing of produce. Mobile phones are also increasingly enabling banking services to reach rural and far flung areas, and lower income groups.

On average, a woman is 21 per cent less likely to own a mobile phone than a man is. This figure increases to 23 per cent if she lives in sub-Saharan Africa, 24 per cent if she lives in the Middle East and 37 per cent if she lives in South Asia.

However, the numbers are changing fast as prices of handsets and services fall. Women users are expected to comprise two thirds of total new mobile connections in future.

Mobile network providers and handset makers will increasingly need to customise their products to suit women’s needs better.