[India] Internet users to gain in VSNL, MTNL price war

["Irfan Khan" <KhanIA@super.net.pk>]

Date sent:      	Tue, 27 Jul 1999 00:08:41 +0500

Internet users to gain in VSNL, MTNL price war

Sharad Goel 
NEW DELHI 25 JULY 

INTERNET users may, yet again, benefit from the ISP price war as 
VSNL, the country's dominant Internet service provider (ISP), is 
contemplating further reduction in its Internet prices. This follows 
a recent price reduction announced by MTNL which is aggressively 
attracting more subscribers with reduced Internet rates. MTNL, with 
its recent price cut, has also tapped the student or low-usage 
category subscribers by offering them 30-hour service at Rs 500 and 
waiving the registration fee to this category. Amitabh Kumar, acting 
CMD of VSNL told The Economic Times that VSNL is considering further 
price cut apart from introducing special packages and value-added 
services to its Internet subscribers. "We would avoid an across-the- 
board slashing of Internet prices. The reduction would be centred 
across the usage pattern of subscribers but we would tap all the 
market segments being tapped by our competitors, be it student or 
corporate," said Mr Kumar. The VSNL chief also said that it has 
undertaken an internal exercise to formulate packages for its 
Internet users based on their usage patterns. This would mean that 
Internet rates would be tailored for high-usage subscribers and low- 
end infrequent users, just like cellular phones. "We would be 
segmenting our subscriber base based on the user requirement, and 
packages would be developed accordingly," Mr Kumar said. We have 
undertaken an internal exercise to study the requirement of our 
customers and the decision would soon be announced," said Mr Kumar. 
On the value-added front, Mr Kumar said the company would be 
aggressively providing more value-added services to its subscribers 
and also launch its regional services on an all-India basis. We have 
a lot of value-added services that can be used by our subscribers. 
Some features are still available in a few cities which would be made 
available to subscribers in other cities as well," said Mr Kumar.   

http://www.economictimes.com/today/26tech03.htm