Big names compete for India's 2-cents-a-minute caller

Iria · Jan 10, 2007, 07:01 PM

Source: News.com
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HONG KONG--When Krishnadeo Prasad Verma calls you from his mobile phone, there is a flicker of a ring, then silence.

Verma, a chauffeur in Mumbai, formerly Bombay, who makes $3 a day, pays only for the calls he dials so he prefers to hang up and wait for you to call back. It is a routine technique for the millions of low-income consumers who have made India the world's fastest-growing market for cell phones.

As investors and corporations maneuver to take over Hutchison Essar, one of India's big providers of mobile phone service, Verma's tactic offers a cautionary tale about the Indian boom: To make cellular service widely accessible in this nation of 1.1 billion people, a company has to practically give it away.

Jan 10, 2007, 07:01 PM	#1
Iria DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 7,275 Rep Power: 89	Big names compete for India's 2-cents-a-minute caller Source: News.com __________ HONG KONG--When Krishnadeo Prasad Verma calls you from his mobile phone, there is a flicker of a ring, then silence. Verma, a chauffeur in Mumbai, formerly Bombay, who makes $3 a day, pays only for the calls he dials so he prefers to hang up and wait for you to call back. It is a routine technique for the millions of low-income consumers who have made India the world's fastest-growing market for cell phones. As investors and corporations maneuver to take over Hutchison Essar, one of India's big providers of mobile phone service, Verma's tactic offers a cautionary tale about the Indian boom: To make cellular service widely accessible in this nation of 1.1 billion people, a company has to practically give it away.