Tata Docomo launches service in Karnataka

The Tata Teleservices and NTT Docomo joint venture Tata Docomo launched its GSM services in Karnataka yesterday. With this the service provider made its presence in four circles, Tamilnadu including Chennai, Kerala and Orissa and Karnataka.

Hitherto a CDMA service provider, Tata Teleservices made an announcemet early last month that it has formed a partnership with Japan's mobile operator NTT Docomo to launch GSM services in India.

Tata Docomo's GSM service also saw an innovative tariff plan of charging users per second basis. The company charges one paisa per second of its talktime usage. This is a 'first' to the country as other mobile operators in India charges per pulse which is fixed at 'sixty second'.

Subscribers can call anywhere in India for just one paise per second, and in Karnataka, the GSM service covers 427 towns and 2,642 villages, including in areas of railway lines and highways.

The operator is expecting to go 'live' in the entire South India by next week.