CIOL: How different will be your 'go-to-market' strategy?

VR: In Rajasthan, the key message of our campaign is to create a churn in the market through the slogan, "Badlo life ka plan" (change your life's plan).

Today over 50 per cent of our subscribers in Rajasthan are not new customers, but those who have switched over from other mobile service operators. They are doing so because they are frustrated with the quality of the old incumbent networks, and are willing to try our non-congested network.

We do not see much difference between GSM (global system for mobile communications) and CDMA. Customers using CDMA technology are approximately one quarter of all. Given the size of the Indian market, this is not small at all.

We have been looking at whether we should wait until we are fully ready with CDMA data offerings or we should start building our customer base and deliver our data offers a bit later. We decided to go in for the second option. We will be coming out with the data offering soon.

CIOL: With several service providers in the frame, will the cost of service be brought down further?

VR: India is a highly price-sensitive market. Our pan-Indian strategy will focus on simplicity in all our marketing strategy. We will offer simple, very clear and understandable tariff plans for our customers. Our tariffs will be the lowest, with no hidden charges.

We have dropped the price of entry-level colour phones to Rs 999, and they come with six months of free calls and lifetime validity. The subsidy that we incur on every phone is going down as the price of phones is going down faster than the fall in new offers.

We will offer SMS at 50 paise unlike most other operators who charge one rupee. The tariffs can fall further, if the regulator makes the termination charge cost-based, which would be less than 10 paise a minute from the current 30 paise, the same can be passed on to customers.

CIOL: How do you see advanced mobile technologies - such as 3G, CDMA - gaining currency in rural areas as well, especially when India has very less wireless penetration?

VR: The advanced mobile technologies such as 3G have the potential to meet the digital divide between rural and urban India by penetrating into far-fetched areas, where fixed-line connectivity is sparse due to high deployment cost of infrastructure. 3G will not only alleviate the existing level of voice-based services, but also make Internet broadband access a reality for larger population.

3G will also fit well into the urban user's plan. It will enable quality voice and address the pent-up demand for high-bandwidth data exchange on mobile phones and support high-speed Internet access on other portable devices.

The government has recognized 3G as the cornerstone for growth of the telecom sector and is expected to allocate the third generation on priority.

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