FACTSHEET |
Year of Start-up: 1995 Area of Operation: Cellular services Employees: 165 Address: Skycell World, Paramount Plaza, 22 MG Road, Nungambakkam Chennai - 600 034 Tel.: 044-822 4595 Fax: 044-822 4503 Web Site: www.skycell-india.com |
For
Skycell Communications, the other cellular operator in Chennai, it was mild year
because of the impending plans of Crompton Greaves and it partners to exit from
the service business. And, the decision to sell the stake to the Bharti Group
for about Rs 200 crore was finally taken. It continued with its consolidation
process and was able to have an active subscriber base of 25,150. The revenues
from services are estimated at Rs 30 crore.
The company’s mainstay was its series of innovative tariff
plans–SkyPlans. It was the first operator to launch pre paid solutions in
chennai and migrated to the Over The Air Charge (OTAC) Cellcard. In the post
paid schemes, it experimented packages like the bundling of the minutes, limited
free incoming calls, and unlimited free calls. It was successful with CPP and
countdown plans in the limited free incoming category. It launched "Semma
Countdown" plan targeted at the budget conscious subscribers. The bottom
line of the SkyCell strategy has been to devise segment-specific differentiated
tariff plans.
Interestingly, it is one of the first operators not pushing the handsets and
in the current year will see an increased focus on completion of the AirTel
acquisition. The market in Chennai could be in for exciting offers from AirTel,
which would bring some of its experience of handling metro subscribers. And with
e-mail services and other mobile banking services, it could introduce a new
feeling among the Chennai residents.