Second is the new Minute now

the GSM brand of Tata Teleservices Limited (TTSL), launched its commercial operations in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, a few days after its launch in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Orissa and Karnataka. The company has launched its services with a first time "pay as you talk" pricing. The pricing model is based on the number of seconds the user talks unlike the conventional minute based usage. It is sure to change the dynamics with which the industry operates. With reliance already offering sachet pricing for various mobile offerings, pay as you talk could change the measurement metrics altogether. Pay as you talk model has enjoyed success in the other telecom markets globally especially in the emerging markets. Qtel (Qatar) and Vodafone have successfully implemented this model and have received tremendous customer response. Qtel plans to continue the offer as a full time plan which it launched as a promotion. Tata Docomo will be implementing the model to almost all the offerings like local, STD, VAS and Interactive calling. However, in terms of pricing evaluation, the cheapest local call costs approximately around 10p/min with a recharge of Rs 198 for a year but with the new Tata offering it is 60p/min. So it could be a boon for people who make calls less than 10 seconds. In terms of STD, the lowest rate comes to 1 rupee per minute as compared with 60p/min for Tata. It could be a profitable bet here if the promotional tata offer continues.