‘Rent-A-Phone' (RAP), a new mobile phone service being introduced by the Delhi-based Vincegrass Creative Solutions Pvt. Ltd., will be available across six telecommunication circles in India from June, Mr Ravi K. Bhalla, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said today.

The service was, at present, being provided on a pilot basis in six of these circles — Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Haryana, Rajasthan, Kerala and Gujarat, where it was launched yesterday at Gandhidham (Kutch), he told reporters here.

The number of franchisees, at present 284, will be increased manifold by March 31, he added. The service is intended to put an end to the customers' need to periodically change or update their handsets to suit their tastes or needs.

Without charging a security deposit, Rent-A-Phone will bring within their reach a wide variety of handsets from almost all mobile phone manufacturing companies, against payment of rents ranging from Rs 10 to 60 a day, depending on the cost of the handset that would range from Rs 4,800 to Rs 60,000.

Also, the company will launch a premium range of rented handsets against a rent of Rs 90 a day for high-end customers.

The service will be of interest to many phone users, because handsets do not have much resale value when the user wants to change it to experience the quality of new models.

Vincegrass will have franchisees such as authorised service points (ASP) and customer service centres (CSC) and house for urban area (HUB) etc to run the service.

If the handset is insured, the customers will not have to pay anything in case of loss or theft but they will be required to submit the first information report (FIR) filed by the police.

Mr Bhalla said that although the RAP concept is new to India, it is run by 150 companies across 110 countries.

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