Hutch starts price war in GPRS market

Hutchison Essar has triggered a rate war in the GPRS market by launching a wide range of services for a special introductory offer of Rs 99 till March 31, 2003. The company, in its introductory offer, will not charge for any multi-media services.

Bharti is revising its GPRS rates across its 16 circles. At present, the company is only targeting corporate customers but it plans to bring down the rates for retail customers.

Anil Nayar, president, Bharti Mobility, said: "Our GPRS offering for corporate customers has been a big success. We are now planning to reach retail customers. But at present our focus is on rejigging our airtime tariffs based on the recent Trai order. We will announce our GPRS plans after that is done."

Nayar indicated that the new rates would be introduced within the next month.

Hutchison Essar is offering the services simultaneously across all Hutch networks covering Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

However, after the introductory offer, Hutch is planning to charge Rs 249 per month for its GPRS services and Rs 5 per MMS.

The introductory offer is cheaper than that offered by BPL Mobile, which charges Rs 200 a month for basic GPRS on mobile telephony. This includes 100 MMS free and Rs 3 per MMS beyond that.

However, BPL introduced an advanced GPRS package for Rs 750 a month in November 2002.

"Hutch's offering is not comparable to ours. It does not allow you to connect a PDA or laptop," FB  Cardoso, chief executive of BPL Mobile, said.

Hutch's GPRS services will include cricket video replays. Hutch, as one of the official sponsors, has exclusive rights to the ICC World Cup for mobile telephony.

Subscribers will be able to receive 10-second video clips of the best moments of all matches of the World Cup as it progresses. Another GPRS service offered by Hutch is photo messaging using MMS.

Hutch's GPRS services would be available from February 8, 2003, coinciding with the inaugural event of the World Cup, Asim Ghosh, managing director, Hutchison Max Telecom, announced in Mumbai in the presence of batsman Rahul Dravid.

In a countrywide deployment, the Hutch GPRS service - HutchWorld - will be available to all Hutch subscribers in India, including those in towns in the state circles of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Hutch subscribers will also be able to receive video clips of cricket highlights while roaming in any Hutch network.

Phones capable of receiving and replaying video clips are also just becoming available in the global market.

The Ericsson P800, which is one of the first phones capable of video replays, is available at Hutch shops across the country.

Alternatively, consumers who have more readily available and cheaper MMS-enabled GPRS phones will be able to receive progressive stills.