In a first-of-its-kind in India's telecom sector, Tata Teleservices on Friday announced that they will offer penalty voluntarily to their subscribers if the quality of their services was below standard. "We will come out with a customer chart setting more stringent quality norms compared to telecom regulator Trai and if we fail to comply with those standards, we are ready to pay penalty to our subscribers," Tata Teleservices MD Anil Sardana said. Mr Sardana also claimed that even as the Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) across operators was falling, the company's ARPUs had been increasing steadily over a period of time.
Meanwhile, the company also launched i-HELP Emergency Service that allows Tata Indicom users to contact their family and friends instantly in case of an emergency. Speaking about the services, Tata Teleservices Maharashtra managing director Mukund Rajan said that with similar initiatives, the company hopes to grow the contribution from value added services from 11% of revenues to 15% within a year. To avail iHELP *44 Emergency, subscribers have to register with the company for three preferred numbers to be contacted in an emergency. A caller just has to dial *44 and the system calls as well as sends SMS to the three registered numbers, intimating them that the subscriber is in need of help.
Source: Economic Times, March-15-08
