It seems that telecom companies in India are trying to leverage on the massive user base and extensive exposure of social media. In order to beat the competition, Aircel India has teamed up with the leader of social networking industry – Facebook – to launch an interesting feature called Facebook Voice Updates exclusively for Aircel customers.
The product is easy-to-use – for example, to broadcast what you’re up to today, simply dial a short code 51555 to Record your voice message, and post it as your status update on Facebook. Your friends will then receive an SMS alert about your new status update, to which they can reply with their own voice updates on Aircel. Users can record a voice message to either post it on their wall or their friend’s wall. They can also send a friend request to use this service.
Mr. Gurdeep Singh, COO, Aircel stated, “At Aircel it is our constant endeavor to Innovate and bring the best to the consumer which enables the consumer to better his lifestyle and live SMART. Convergence is the way forward as it opens a world of possibilities. Facebook Voice Updates on Aircel is a step in that direction which helps both the business community and the youth to connect efficiently, be it a celebration or an emergency. It is an honor indeed to be working with Facebook and making this possible for the very first time”.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGtcAZP56RU&feature=player_embedded
With the launch of such service, Aircel is targeting the massive 17 million Indian users base of Facebook. Undoubtedly, such value added service will not only provide the additional count of users for Aircel but also multiple the revenue from existing customers which will opt for such service. As per a study, around 80% of mobile owners in India use the non-smartphone handsets which are not much compatible for using Internet services.
Industry experts feel that all mobile operators are scaling up their services and features in order to retain their customers especially the number portability facility is under effect.
The service is available to both Prepaid and the Postpaid customers of Aircel across and the call charges are Rs 1/min. And once the users are subscribed, there will a subscription fee of Rs. 5/- per week which auto renews every week. However, some sources claims that service will be available at Rs 5/- per week for unlimited usage.
