Bharti Airtel Hong Kong has introduced airtel talk application for affordable calls into India.
airtel talk application is available for free on Google Play and Apple App Store.
The company said airtel talk uses 3G or Wi-Fi connectivity to enable voice calls to landlines and mobile at 1 cent per minute.
165 minutes of voice calls at airtel talk will cost $2, 450 minutes for $5 and 1,000 minutes for $10 for a duration of 30 days.
Other airtel talk services include free messaging, free video calls and conference calls services.
Bharti Airtel aims to connect the Indian diaspora to its subscriber base of over 300 million with as well as others abroad.
airtel talk will be an alternative to current options such as ISD voice-only calls, sub-quality messenger calls, calling cards etc.
Ajay Chitkara, CEO – Global Business, Bharti Airtel, said: “Airtel’s network infrastructure across its countries of operations and strong carrier alliances in other geographies will collectively deliver high quality service experience for airtel talk users at affordable costs.”
Airtel challenges OTT players
The company has launched airtel talk at a time when OTT players have started disrupting the voice and messaging market.
Recently, social networking media Facebook has closed its $19 billion acquisition of WhatsApp.
Pamela Clark-Dickson, senior analyst, Consumer Services at Ovum, recently said that the Facebook-owned WhatsApp is likely to launch VoIP, and may announce more MVNO-type deals across the globe.
Facebook has three messaging apps: Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.
In fact, WhatsApp missed its Q2 2014 deadline for launching VoIP services that could damage the revenue streams of global telecom operators.
WhatsApp has 600 million monthly active users and they send and receive more than 60 billion messages a day.
Vodafone wants OTT to be charged
Vodafone India MD and CEO Marten Pieters said that the government should tax over the top (OTT) players like WhatsApp, Viber, Hike and Facebook as they are getting a free ride on telecom networks without paying for spectrum or any other fee.
Baburajan K
[email protected]
