"I think paging is going to stay at least for a decade"

Are you planning to exit from paging business altogether?

It does not make any sense because it forms the bulk of our
revenue and we see a situation where we want to reduce our dependence on paging
at the rate of 20 percent every year. That is why we have entered into domestic
call center market. I think paging is going to stay at least for a decade.

What is the status on the domestic call center front and
how big is the market?

It is nascent as of now. EasyCall actually started it, we
also got into it. We did not get as much response as we desired but we are
confident of doing well in this segment. There are certain hurdles, though. We
need domestic toll free to be cheap. Most of these calls in the US or elsewhere
are not so costly. Once the national long distance comes in and toll free
becomes cheaper, then the situation will improve. If we have to go for
centralized solution today, we have to go for leased lines which are too
expensive.

Are you hopeful of the recent TRAI’s efforts at making
paging more viable?

TRAI has already sent its recommendations to the Telecom
Commission saying that there should be a revenue sharing with basic operators
and the job of devising the formula has been left the operators. We are in
discussions with MTNL and BSNL, that the call rate the pager to be Rs 2.40 of
which we want Rs 1.80. We are hopeful of resolving the issue soon, at least with
MTNL.

What do you think is the problem with paging at present?

The main problem is that the rentals are high. It is Rs 300
per month and 85 percent of our subscriber base is alphanumeric. We need to
reduce this at least by Rs 100 to make it Rs 200 or less. Only then will we have
a significant difference between paging and cellular, and then, hopefully,
expect services to start taking off.

Sudesh Prasad