Experts say the pricing would affect the incumbents, which will have little choice but to take on this new RCom in GSM's clothing.
Already, Bharti's Airtel, the country's largest mobile phone brand, has cut its lifetime connection fee to Rs 99. Vodafone is planning to bring its down to the same level across the country.
Idea Cellular is already offering it at Rs 40 in some circles and the average across the country has already fallen to Rs 149. All of them point out that they are not offering free minutes - a loss-making proposition.
Macquarie warns of a disruptive impact on the incumbents' average revenue per user, or ARPU, as well as their minutes of usage since many pre-paid subscribers would shift significant talk time usage to RCom for the next 90 days.
Macquarie says Bharti's Airtel will suffer a 17 per cent drop in ARPU in the next quarter, and forecasts a sharper decline for Idea Cellular, which is also launching in new circles.
Image: Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal speaks during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit 2009 in Ahmedabad. | Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters
Also read: Top 10 technology breakthroughs of 2008
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