Reliance Communications has succumbed to the pay per second trend. The operator has launched two new tariff variants effective November 5 under its Simply Reliance Initiative plan.
Reliance Communications sees three distinct segments emerging in terms of call patterns in the country – short duration calls, long duration calls and standard length calls. For short duration callers, Reliance is launching 1 paisa per second call rate. For long duration callers, there is a Re 1 for 3 minutes call rate and for standard call duration, it will continue charging 50 paisa per minute tariff rate. Reliance is launching these plans across both its CDMA and GSM networks.
The company claims that the new tariffs are valid on all local calls, STD calls, to any CDMA or GSM mobile and landline anywhere in India, all incoming and outgoing calls while roaming, anytime of the day or night, without any monthly charges and without any hidden charges or any conditions.
Mahesh Prasad, president, Reliance Communications, says in a company statement, “The launch of Simply Reliance Plan in October was very well received in the market, both by customers and trade. We now extend the Simply Reliance Initiative by offering two new products catering to varied customer needs with the same simplicity and unconditional transparency.”
Almost all operators today are offering per second billing in some form or the other, including Vodafone, Aircel and Idea Cellular.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has announced a ban on the use of prepaid SIM cards in Jammu & Kashmir quoting security reasons. It has decided that no prepaid mobile connections should be issued and existing pre paid SIM cards should not be renewed after November 1.
In an official statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs states, “The step comes in the wake of the reports that proper verification is not being done while providing such pre-paid mobile connections by the service providers/vendors. In some cases, a single person had been issued with multiple number of connections.” Some connections are being acquired based on fake documents.
The Ministry has asked the Department of Telecommunications to implement the ban as soon as possible.
Earlier this month, Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had spoken on the same issue while addressing the media in Srinagar.

After several delays, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has finally announced that the auction for third generation (3G) spectrum will begin on January 14, 2010.
According to the information memorandum posted on DoT’s website, the auction will be carried out in four stages: invitation, pre-qualification, auction and grant of spectrum. A pre-bid conference will be organised on November 16 and a mock auction on January 11 and 12. The timelines have been furnished in the memorandum but it states that “there is no pre-set timetable and the government reserves the right to determine the overall timetable of the auctions or to amend it from time to time.”
The government has decided to auction up to 20 MHz of paired spectrum in the 2.1GHz Band in the telecom service areas where 25 MHz or more paired spectrum is available. The Government has allocated one block of 2x5MHz of spectrum in Mumbai and Delhi for MTNL and one block of 2x5MHz of spectrum in the remaining service areas for BSNL.
The memorandum lays down the eligibility criteria for participating in the auction. It says that any entity that holds a Universal Access Service (UAS) or Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (CMTS) licence; or that has previous experience of running 3G telecom services either directly or through a majority-owned subsidiary, and plans to obtain a UAS licence as per the DoT guidelines before starting telecom operations can bid for 3G spectrum.
The document also mentions, “Interested foreign entities are allowed to participate in the auctions directly and apply for licences subsequently.” Hence, foreign applicants will need to form an Indian subsidiary to obtain a UAS licence or an Internet Service Provider category ‘A’ licence to participate in the bid.
The indicative reserve price for Delhi, Mumbai and Circle A is Rs 320 crore, for Kolkata and Circle B is Rs 120 crore and for Circle C is Rs 30 crore.
Apart from the 3G spectrum auction, DoT has fixed timelines for the 800 MHz and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) auctions as well.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) has extended the free trial of its 3G Jadoo services till October 31 to widen its customer base. Earlier, MTNL was offering the free trial of its 3G services till October 26.
During the free trial period, the activation charges of Rs 300 will be waived off and the customer can make unlimited free local video calls. The high speed usage charges will be at 50 paise per 100 KB and 3G voice calls will be charged at existing 2G (Trump, Dolphin) plan call rate.
Customers can activate the service by sending SMS ‘FREE 3G’to 555 from Dolphin (postpaid) and SMS ‘FREE 3G’ to 444 from Trump (prepaid). To continue 3G Jadoo services after the free trial period with waiver of activation charges, the customers can send SMS ‘ACT 3G’ to 444 for TRUMP or to 555 for Dolphin, on or before October 31.

Vodafone Essar and Shoppers Stop have announced the launch of merchandise featuring Vodafone’s popular character, Zoozoo, which was created earlier this year to promote the cellular service provider’s value-added services.
Shoppers Stop will have the exclusive rights to manufacture and retail Zoozoo merchandise, including T-shirts, kids wear, mugs and bed and bath accessories, across its stores in India. Further merchandise will be introduced shortly.
The T-shirts, available for both men and women, are priced at Rs 299 onwards. Vodafone is also offering a 10 per cent discount to its customers on purchases of Zoozoo merchandise.
“We thought it is a fantastic way to connect with our customers. Zoozoo has a huge community following on the viral medium,” Kumar Ramanathan, chief marketing officer, Vodafone Essar, tells afaqs!.
“What started as an innovative advertisement campaign has become so popular that we are compelled to bring Zoozoos out of the television screens and into the homes of our customers,” he adds.
After the initial enthusiasm during the second edition of the Indian Premier League, when the Zoozoos were introduced, there was a lull, as the characters were not seen much in advertisements.
“We were not advertising using Zoozoos and that is why the lull. Relevance is more important to us and we think it is the right opportunity and medium now,” explains Ramanathan.
On the choice of Shoppers Stop, he says, “We looked at key guys in the segment. We chose Shoppers Stop for their phenomenal experience in merchandising and them being one of the pioneers in the retail space”.
Vinay Bhatia, customer care associate and vice-president, marketing and loyalty, Shoppers Stop says in a press statement, “We identified a significant opportunity in character-based merchandising. This exclusive arrangement marks a strategic alliance aimed at augmenting the Zoozoo frenzy”.
“Character merchandising is a new emerging trend in India targeting the youth, and we are adding a whole new dimension to this. Given the increasing size of the youth audience at Shoppers Stop, this merchandising line fits well in our merchandise offering,” Bhatia adds.
The promotion of the merchandise will be done at three levels, Bhatia tells afaqs!.
At the first level, the 14.5 lakh members of the Shoppers Stop First Citizen Club will be targeted, which will be followed by communication with the Vodafone subscriber base.
For the final level, Shoppers Stop will conduct in-store promotional activities to reach out to its weekly traffic of seven lakh customers.
“The promotion will be a joint effort with Shoppers Stop and Vodafone reaching out to their relevant customers,” says Bhatia.