Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Now, get paid to receive calls!

HYDERABAD: Remember the days when incoming calls used to be charged a whopping Rs. 16 a minute?

Mobile calling in the country has indeed come of age.

The scene has morphed so much that now one can get paid for receiving calls. Virgin Mobile, a service from the UK-based Virgin Group, is now offering to pay 10 paise a minute for receiving calls on its network.

Virgin Mobile is another brand operating on Tata Teleservices platform.

Addressing a press conference, CEO of Virgin Mobile Madhusudan Mandyam said that the calls between phones in the company’s network within a circle would be charged at 10 paise, if the calling party paid Rs. 28 a month. It had several features that would attract youth, including 750 local SMS at a monthly package of Rs. 39.

The company was offering six models of phones of different makes. Besides, the instruments bought in the open market too would work on it.

Explaining the revenue model in the wake of payment of 10 paise an incoming call, he said Virgin Mobile would earn revenue from the operators of other networks toward interconnect charges.

Even call-divert from any phone to Virgin Mobile would fetch 10 paise a minute to the latter’s customer.

Mr. Madhusudan said that the company was planning to invest huge amounts to reach out to 1,000 cities/towns and occupy a market share of 10 per cent within three years. The potential of the market was 50 million in India.

Chief Sales Officer P. Madhavan said that the Virgin Mobile phones and connections could be bought from almost all the popular retail outlets.

‘Call more for less’ was another scheme as part of which the first two minutes of calling on any day from a Virgin Mobile attracted a charge of Re 1 a minute and subsequent minutes would be charged at 50 paise in the local call network.

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