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V. Rishi Kumar

Hyderabad , June 24

DRIVING around the city or countryside and faced with the problem of cellphone battery going down?

There's help at hand, thanks to a new initiative by Hutch.

Hutch has set up recharge centres where one can walk in and get mobile phones recharged for free.

Typically, each of these centres has multiple recharges catering to most popular brands such as Nokia, Panasonic, and Sony Ericsson, among others.

People can walk in and get their handsets recharged and walk out.

Common spots are in public places like airports, railways stations and bus bays.

Mr Harit Nagpal, Chief Marketing Officer of Hutch, told Business Line that what started as a solution to a practical problem faced with people on the move has turned out to be an innovative and yet useful offering to mobile phone users.

"When we realised how an individual feels when faced with the problem of draining battery and there's no battery charger, we hit upon this idea as an extended service offering to all mobile users irrespective of the operator they subscribed to.

"As we began rolling out this across the country, this initiative has proved to be very successful. We have so far created 2,000 such zones and plan to create many more across the country, while we get clearances from local authorities."

These centres are often being created in busy places to help people with mobiles on the move.

For instance, in places such as coffee shops and pizza centres, it is easier to locate one.

"On the other hand, in public places we apply for local clearance.

"Once we receive their nod, we set up recharge zones within minimum space for the wall-mounted chargers," Mr Nagpal said.

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