The Hindu Business Line : Aircel launches GSM services in Kerala

Kochi, Feb. 10 Aircel, the telecom operator, has entered the Kerala market with the launch of its GSM mobile services thereby enhancing its network to 11 circles in the country.

The service was launched by film actor Prithiviraj in the presence of Mr Gurdeep Singh, Chief Operating Officer, at a function held here at Hotel Le Meridien on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference, Mr Singh said there is a huge market potential for a mobile phone service provider in the State with mobile penetration of 42 per cent.

The Kerala launch augments the next phase of the company’s pan-India roll out as it will be present in all the circles by this year-end. “We are in the process of strengthening the southern corridor in the next 3-4 months by launching the services in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh,” Mr Singh said.

Rs 500-cr investment

The company, he said, has invested Rs 500 crore in the Kerala market in the first phase to set up 1,200 base stations, which will be doubled in one year. The products and services are uniquely tailored to meet the special needs of consumers in the State such as the lowest inbuilt Gulf tariff at Rs 5.99 a minute.

It also enables subscribers in Kerala to make calls to Tamil Nadu from Aircel to Aircel at only 50ps and free roaming facility from Aircel to Aircel in Tamil Nadu. In addition, there is an inbuilt reduction in tariff on all local calls after the first minute to 50ps for all subsequent minutes, he added.

Aircel has set up a specialised Data Call Centre with the latest technology and multilingual customer care handling capability. It has an EDGE-enabled network and with the modern infrastructure facility, it should provide a competitive range of products with a rich bouquet of value-added services.

With a subscriber base of 16 million, Aircel is the number two operator with an 18.2 per cent cumulative market share in its current market. It is also the market leader in Tamil Nadu, Assam, North East and Chennai, he added.