NEW DELHI, India—A price war in prepaid cellular services in Mumbai and New Delhi—India’s biggest GSM markets—is in the offing, with the state-owned MTNL launching on 14 January its prepaid card called Trump at rates much lower than those offered by private players.
Communications Minister Pramod Mahajan, who launched the prepaid service, said MTNL’s lower tariffs were likely to force private competitors to lower charges. The launch of MTNL’s post-paid service last year also led to a fierce price war.
Trump offers 98 minutes of talk time for a 300-rupee (US$6.10) card, compared with other cards, which offer about 49 minutes of talk time in Delhi and 43 minutes in Mumbai for the same price, MTNL said in a statement. Customers who buy a 500-rupee (US$10.33) cash card from MTNL will get 198 minutes of talk time compared with 90 minutes offered by private competitors in Delhi and 126 minutes in Mumbai.
With this launch, MTNL hopes to double its subscriber base in the two cities in two months, said MTNL Chairman Narinder Sharma. Prepaid is expected to boost MTNL’s cellular service Dolphin, which currently has around 115,000 subscribers in the two cities. The two cities account for nearly 2.2 million out of 5.5 million subscribers nationwide.
