Virgin Mobile has launched GSM services in five circles in south India – Chennai, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka – in South India. Calls within the circles will be charged at the rate of 20 paise for STD.

The call charges will be 40 paise per minute for local and 50 paise per minute for STD calls to other circles. Virgin Mobile’s GSM services come in three attractive offers viz vMingle Service, vGenie Service and vBelong Service.

In a related development Virgin Mobile has signed up Rocket Singh aka Ranbir Kapoor and Genelia D’Souza as its brand ambassadors. The company is known for its whacky advertising, the telecom operator will feature the duo mainly in television commercials.

Virgin is already offering services using CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) technology through Tata since 2008.

Virgin did not disclose the number of CDMA subscribers it has in the country.

Tata, a CDMA player, started last year also offering services on the GSM standard under the Tata DoCoMo brand, to take advantage of the booming GSM market. NTT DoCoMo is a key shareholder in Tata Teleservices.

Telecom regulator TRAI fixed at Rs 19 the reference rate for portability fee–charged from users for changing operator while retaining the number.

The per port transaction charge will be Rs 19 and the subscriber will not be charged more than that. However, operators are free to levy any amount less than or equal to this charge, TRAI said in a statement today.

Government has fixed the deadline of December 31, 2009, by which operators should ready their networks for porting of numbers in metros.

TRAI  issued guidelines on Mobile Number Portability (MNP) Per Port Transaction as well as Dipping charges thereby setting the stage for implementation of MNP in India from December 31 this year.

TRAI fixed the Per Port Transaction Charge at Rs 19 i.e. the service provider to which the subscriber wants to migrate will have to pay the MNP system provider, Rs.19.

Government has fixed the deadline of December 31, 2009, by which operators should ready their networks for porting of numbers in metros.

Accordingly the service is likely to be available in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The Dipping Charge i.e. the charge paid by Access Provider or ILD provider to MNP provider has been left for the parties to mutually decide.  The porting charge i.e. charge paid by the subscriber will not exceed Rs 19.

The charges fixed by TRAI are very low when compared to earlier expectations of the amount to be in the range of Rs 250.

Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) has launched a flat per-call plan for subscribers on its CDMA network in a move that could attract customers in a market that has traditionally grown on the back of aggressive pricing.

The Pay Per Call plan breaks completely free from the usual pulse of one minute, charging subscribers a fixed charge on a per-call basis – just Re. 1 for all local calls and Rs 3 for STD calls—regardless of the duration of the call. SMS would be offered at a special price of 50 paise for both National and local messages, According to press release.

The pay-per-call product has been launched on the prepaid platform, and subscribers opting for it will be charged a daily fee of Re.1.

Tariffs for international long distance, roaming (or moving across circles) and value-added services remain unchanged, According to Anil Sardana, TTSL managing director.

Bharti Airtel India’s largest GSM Mobile service provider today unveiled SPECIAL FIVE scheme for its postpaid subscribers a new concept which offers very low calling rates for 5 SPECIAL AIRTEL POSTPAID NUMBERS of one’s choice.

POSTPAID SCHEME DETAILS: Unlike in Prepaid where the customer can avail his existing plan and select 5 numbers of his/her choice and continue to enjoy the existing sms/call topping.

In Postpaid the rate plan (Bill Plan) of the customer gets changed totally.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS :
Maximum 5 Airtel mobile numbers – (Local & STD) can be added.
NO LIMIT on Number Changes  – unlike Prepaid where same can be done up to a maximum of 5 times per month

Number Change charges – Rs 5 / number changed.

RATE PLAN DETAILS:

Monthly Rental :Rs 249

Free Talktime :249 minutes Local

Special 5 Tariffs :20p/min (Local) & 50p/min (STD)

Other Tariffs :50p/min (Local) & Re1/min (STD)

PROCEDURE

Customer needs to send an SMS “FIVE” to 121,

Following sms would be received

To enjoy discounted calling rates to your Special 5 Airtel mobile numbers, get the Spl5 plan. You would be charged @ Rs 249 monthly rental and get 249 local min free. Calling rates to Spl 5 numbers will be 20p/min for local Airtel to Airtel and 50p/min for STD Airtel to Airtel. Rest of the numbers will be charged as – local: 50p/min, STD: Re 1/min For changing your bill plan to Spl5 plan, send 1

Interested customers can add five numbers to avail the feature under add-on to customers’ current tariff plans in prepaid. The scheme is available as exclusive ‘Special 5′ plan for post paid customers.

Prepaid customers are required to register their special 5 numbers using automated IVR that gets initiated on dialing 12141. However, postpaid customers are required to use short massaging service to avail the ‘Special 5′ plan. The service can be activated by sending a message “FIVE” to 121 at Airtel.

The company will charge daily rent of Re. 1 for STD and 50 paise for local Airtel to Airtel for each number.

MENU OPTIONS INCLUDE:

Now enjoy uninterrupted calling to your Special 5 people at the cheapest rates

1. View Spl 5 community

2. Add a number

3. Delete a number

4. View plan charges

Aircel launched its GSM services in Delhi on Wednesday to become the 7th operator to fight for market share in a city that boasts of both the highest per capita income in India after Chandigarh and Goa as well as a teledensity touching 90%.

Delhi already has six mobile operators — Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, MTNL, Tatas, Reliance Communication.

Aircel will offer a lifetime validity scheme for prepaid mobile customers at Rs 299. Users will be able to make local calls at Re 1 for the first minute, 60 paise for the second minute and 40 paise the third minute onwards. The connection will be available across 14,500 outlets Thursday onwards.Aircel’s business users can call and message local Aircel numbers for free while the STD Aircel to Aircel tariff will be just 50 paise.

Aircel, which sponsors Indian Premier League team Chennai Superkings and has M S Dhoni as its brand ambassador, is India’s fifth largest GSM mobile service provider with 17 million users and Delhi is the 14th circle for the company.

According to a report appeared in The Times of India, The numbers are dying down in the post paid subscribers’ front. The report says that in India, 99% of the new phone connections in the mobile market are covered by pre-paid customers. India has all but completely rejected the post-paid option, with nearly 99% of new mobile user additions in the country accounting for by pre-paid connections.

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile company by user base, added a record 8.1 million-plus new customers during the October-December 2008 quarter, of which 99.6% were pre-paid users. Same as Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar and Tata Teleservices. About 99.9% of RCOM’s 5.5 million new additions in the quarter went in for a pre-paid connection, while for Vodafone Essar and Tata Teleservices, the numbers were 97.3% and 96%, respectively.