Airtel to sell emergency alert service among women

Bharti Airtel, which introduced an emergency alert service two months ago in New Delhi, continued to sell the service in eastern region among female customers.

"Out of total customer base of around 19 million customer base in the states of West Bengal and Odisha, one-third would be female. We expect subscription for this service from about 10 per cent from female customer," Bharti Airtel (Kolkata & WB) COO Vir Inder Nath told reporters on Friday.

During an emergency, Airtel mobile customers can now send an alert thrice in 30 minutes with their geographic location to their closest 10 loved ones simultaneously with just a call, Nath said during demonstration of the service.

Airtel, which aims to popularise the service nationwide to help people in distress situation pointing at recent atrocities on women, with a subscription of Rs 30

per month, fails to pinpoint the location of the affected person may be required during such situation.

The service will only give geographical position based on a cellular tower location, which usually serves about 500 metres in radius and not exact location unless any form of communication is established with the caller.

Currently, the service cannot not interact with police helpline effectively till proper infrastructure is ready for the police department However, police department had also expressed interest in such services, Airtel officials said.

Meanwhile, certain mobile handsets also offers emergency sms service to preset numbers irrespective of the telecom service it uses.