Airtel, cellular service provider from the Bharti stable with over 3 million customers, is leaving no stones unturned in making sure that customers are not swayed in favour of wireless in local loop, in the wake of Reliance Infocomm's aggressive pricing.

Airtel has started sending direct mailers to subscribers assuring them that the brand would announce a special package this month with competitive tariffs, in the event of the launch of limited mobility services. But that's not all.

The company is also making efforts to educate the subscribers about the benefits of GSM over WLL. As per the mailer, 95 per cent of the world's countries and 80 per cent of the world's mobile population prefer GSM over WLL.

Airtel is also cashing on the full mobility aspect of GSM technology in India. "Our world class GSM technology gives customers 'full mobility' services by giving the unlimited freedom to communicate wherever you are, in India or abroad," said the mailer.

Airtel officials were unavailable for comment. It is not known whether this mailer is the beginning of an awareness campaign initiated by the GSM players to combat any kind of churn.

Subscribers are likely to be offered some tangible benefits by GSM operators as well, industry analysts said.

One option could be waiver of airtime charges on high value calls such as long distance national and international calls.

Another option reportedly under study would be free handsets to subscribers who guarantee a reasonably high monthly billing through post-dated cheques.

The latter is a very common practice worldwide, with average life of a handset under the scheme being 12-18 months. However, it is not clear how existing subscribers can avail of such a benefit.

Market analysts said, cellular companies have been apprehensive about the package announced by Reliance and have launched a campaign to allay subscribers' fears.

Reliance is likely to launch its services in the middle of February after a nationwide demonstration.

Reliance is offering free incoming calls, outgoing calls at Re 0.40 for 15 seconds besides most of the value-added services come free.

The market is expecting announcements from the cellular companies soon, which may include special incentives and value additions for the subscribers.

Major cellular companies apart from Airtel are, Hutchison, Idea Cellular, Spice and BPL. Analysts said, Hutchison and Airtel have made substantial investments in their networks and would do everything to retain subscribers.