Prepaid cards have changed the wire-free world in a big way. They have turned mobile phone connections a lot more affordable, giving the subscribers considerable relief from the month-end bill pangs.

Walk in to that corner shop which also sells prepaid cards, go mobile and stay connected. Things have never been so easy.

But the picture is not so perfect. The catch lies in refilling.

Your initial enthusiasm evaporates when your 'friendly shopkeeper' informs you that he doesn't have the refill card of your operator. And the one he might have won't suit your budget. In many cases, the subscribers are forced to buy cards with higher denominations.

India Prepaid Services Ltd, along with Prepaid Company of South Africa, has come out with a virtual prepaid airtime service that the company says will help the card holders recharge their mobiles, connected by any operator, from a third party retailer.

The system works like this: IPSL has set up servers in Delhi and Mumbai, where the company hopes to start operations by this month-end.

The servers are connected to retail point of sales in the front-end and to the mobile operators in the back-end.

The front-end retailer can be anyone from a shop in a mall to a petrol filling station.

The retailer should have a cash register, a credit card swiping machine, or a computer billing machine that can be connected to the server through Internet using India Prepaid Services' proprietary software application.

Each retailer is assigned an identification number. When a customer approaches him to recharge, he only has to key in his personal identification number and the server deducts the keyed-in amount from the deposit the retailer has kept with the company.

The customer gets a slip for the transaction in which he will get he number to recharge the connection.

Though the subscriber can choose for any amount of refill, the actual talk time will defer from operator to operator.

Apart from the fixed terminal connected to the server, the company plans to introduce mobile terminals too.

Small shop owners can install a terminal by paying an amount to the company.

Once the deposit money is exhausted, the shop owner should make more payment and stay connected to the company.

These terminals are not connected through Internet and can be used by door-to-door sales men too.

India Prepaid Services has tied up with Bharti and Hutchison and will sell the virtual prepaid cards of Airtel and Hutch.

The service will be introduced in Mumbai and Delhi initially with 200 retailers.

The company plans to increase this to 2,000 by the year-end.

After gauging the response, the company plans to expand its network across the country, bringing CDMA operators into its fold.

For more details contact:

Delhi: 23367080 / Mumbai: 56595519

How it works

• Retailers and mobile operators are connected through the main IPSL server.
• Retailers can be connected to the server through their cash register, credit card machine or machine supplied by the IPSL.
• No need for retailers to keep the prepaid cards in physical form in their shops.
• Customers can refill for any amount.