Future Group joins Tata Teleservices , enters telecom

Indian retail behemoth Future Group in alliance with Tata Teleservices on Friday stepped into mobile telephony market with the launch of its Talk 24 (T24) brand in West Bengal.

Test marketed in Hyderabad over the past 3 months, the GSM brand aimed specifically at customers who shop at any of the over 1,200 retail outlets belonging to the Future Group in India, will be rolled out in rest of the country with a phased approach in the next 6 to 12 months, officials said.

?People who shop at Big Bazaar, Pantaloons, Brand Factory, among other chains operated by us, will be offered this connection and subscribers to the service will get talk-time based on their purchases and shopping discount vouchers based on the amount of prepaid recharges,? said a company official at a press conference here.

The T24 network, will use the same infrastructure as Tata?s own GSM service Tata Docomo to provide the connectivity thus ensuring competitive tariffs akin to current market prices. The marketing, customer services and other divisions will be handled by Future.

?We received outstanding response to our foray in Hyderabad and so we are very optimistic that the service will be well received here as well,? said Sandeep Singal, sales head, Tata Docomo.

According to reports, the service garnered an encouraging 70,000 subscribers in Andhra Pradesh throughout the testing phase and officials said they are targeting around 5 to 6 lakh customers over West Bengal within the next 12 months.

?We chose West Bengal as our entr?e simply because it is very close to our heart. Our first Pantaloons, Big Bazaar stores opened right here in this city,? said Mayur Toshniwal, chief executive officer of T24.

For Tata, which similarly shares infrastructure with Virgin Mobile India, the juice from the squeeze is optimisation of its network resources and also a share in the lucrative venture.

Future Group, on the other hand, hopes to increase customer loyalty and retention through this undertaking which will only be available in the close to 75 cities it currently operates in. The connections too will be exclusively available from 330 of its major outlets nationwide.

?It?s a very unique proposition that has never been tried in India before. And its not a full fledged telephony enterprise so it?s easier to manage. It?s just like any other scheme or product we offer at the Future stores,? said Toshniwal.

Experts say such targeted enterprises will only prove better for the industry by intensifying the competition in India?s wireless telephone market which already has 635 million customers, a 57 per cent penetration density and over 8 million new connections added every month.