The Hindu Business Line : GSM operators ready for ‘Virgin’ blitzkrieg

New Delhi, March 10 The fight for the youth segment in the fastest growing mobile market is heating up, following an aggressive launch of services by Tata-Virgin combine. While GSM operators including Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are adopting a wait-and-watch policy for now, they are internally gearing to up the ante in terms of pushing their own youth-oriented initiatives.

“We are enhancing our youth-oriented advertising and marketing initiatives. Our entire customer service platform is based on self-service, where customers pick and choose what they want without actually interacting with a human interface and is aimed at the youth segment,” said an Airtel executive.

Another GSM operator said that it was waiting for Virgin Mobile to unveil its complete range of value-added services. “It is still early days and we will react once the entire package is unveiled,” said a Mumbai-based operator. Market watchers said that with more than 44 per cent of the user base falling in the youth segment, every player will be eyeing a larger share.

No room for change

GSM operators are taking comfort in the fact Virgin Mobile is on a CDMA platform which means subscribers will not be able to change the operator. “Youngsters like freedom, but the offer from Virgin will mean that one would be locked up on Tata Teleservices’ network,” said a GSM operator.

GSM operators also said that the offer from Virgin to offer money for receiving calls works to their advantage because they also end up earning revenues. “About 80 per cent of the mobile base is on GSM and it is more likely that it will be a GSM user who will be calling a Virgin Mobile user. So a 10-minute call could mean earnings of at least Rs 5 for GSM operators,” said an industry expert.

However, what is working in favour of Virgin Mobile is that no other company can probably afford to replicate its advertising and communication strategy. While Virgin can be irreverent and funky since it is targeting only the youth, other mobile operators have to create a brand image for their larger mobile user community.

Sources close to Virgin said, “Our entire proposition is based on simplicity and flexibility. This is backed by strong market research which clearly indicates that the youth are looking for an overall proposition, not a piece-meal approach that exists in the market today.”

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