CDMA services provider Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) is taking the tariff war to a new turf with the launch of low-end handsets priced around Rs 2,000 with internet connection.
The company will charge around Rs 100 per month for its services, the lowest in the country for browsing the Net over mobile phones, compared with the existing tariffs of around Rs 500 per month charged by other service providers.
The Tata group company has entered into a tie-up with Opera Mini, a global mobile browser developer, and CDMA software major Qualcomm for the chipset.
"We have tied up with Opera Mini for the browser, while the company will also provide back-end and server support. We are using Qualcomm's single chipset (QSC) to rollout the services that would be initially available on select handsets," Pankaj Sethi, president (value-added services), TTSL, said.
Initially, the service would be available on Huawei 2900i, priced at Rs 1,999 and other low-end handsets that would be rolled out by the company.
At present, internet services are also available on Samsung Explore, which is priced at Rs 5,499. "This would be cheapest internet connection over mobile phones in India, if not in the world," added Sethi.
An unlisted company, TTSL is adding around 1 million customers per month and, at present, has over 20 million subscribers across 22 circles in the country.
Industry analysts said this would be the cheapest internet service even though firms such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and BPL Mobile provide internet over mobile phones, the lowest rates would hover around Rs 400 per month.
