Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

India Telephone Card facility fails to gain ground

By N.Ravi Kumar

CHENNAI May. 7. A combination of factors including many misconceptions about the facility and the absence of unmanned public telephones seems to hamper the popularity of BSNL's India Telephone Card (ITC) in the city.

Devised on the lines of a debit card, the ITC, hitherto known as Virtual Calling Card (VCC), seeks to promote the concept of `as-you-like, when-you-like and where-you-like'. The card is essentially to allow the customers, including existing subscribers, to make long distance calls from NSD/ISD-barred telephones. The cost of these calls is charged to the account specified by the ITC number. The ITC is also targetted at frequent travellers, sales and marketing personnel and out- station students.

Available in the denominations of Rs.210, Rs.525 and Rs.1,050, the Card, issued by Chennai Telephones since June 1999, is sold at all the BSNL entity's customer service centres and through private marketing agencies. Till December 2001, Chennai Telephones sold ITC worth Rs.4.5 crores. Calls made using the Card are charged at Rs.1.20 per unit.

The potential of the Card to be a major revenue earner, however, has not missed the attention of the authorities as Chennai Telephones is regularly creating awareness of it through the media. There are proposals to market the ITC through post offices, even as subscribers feel that the network could be expanded by including petrol bunks and retail chains.

While the issue of marketing the Card is not difficult to be sorted out, the main impediment appears to be the defiant attitude of the PCOs in not allowing the ITC holders to use their telephones. Most of the operators consider the move as waste of time and money, which could possibly affect their business. They also consider the Card as a competition.

The other option of making a call from a private telephone is almost closed as it would tantamount to invading into the privacy of others. Moreover, the main misconception among those who allow others to use their telephone is that the call charges would have to be borne by them. Under such circumstances, an attractive mode of promoting the ITC is by introducing unmanned public telephones at important locations in the city. Such equipment could be installed at petrol bunks.The ITC facility is part of the Intelligent Network service of the BSNL and every card has an expiry date and comes with a secret code. According to a market survey, most of the ITC sales are concentrated in the major cities of South including Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

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